Relationship of species diversity between overstory trees and understory herbs along the environmental gradients in the Tianshan Wild Fruit Forests, Northwest China

作     者：CHENG Junhui SHI Xiaojun FAN Pengrui ZHOU Xiaobing SHENG Jiandong ZHANG Yuanming CHENG Junhui;SHI Xiaojun;FAN Pengrui;ZHOU Xiaobing;SHENG Jiandong;ZHANG Yuanming

作者机构：Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Soil and Plant Ecological ProcessesCollege of Grassland and Environmental SciencesXinjiang Agricultural UniversityUrumqi 830052China State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis EcologyXinjiang Institute of Ecology and GeographyChinese Academy of SciencesUrumqi 830011China 

出 版 物：《Journal of Arid Land》 (干旱区科学（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2020年第12卷第4期

页      面：618-629页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 0830[工学-环境科学与工程（可授工学、理学、农学学位）] 0709[理学-地质学] 0708[理学-地球物理学] 09[农学] 0815[工学-水利工程] 0705[理学-地理学] 0903[农学-农业资源与环境] 

基　　金：financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China (2016D01A033) 

主　　题：diversity indices overstory trees understory herbs paleoclimate current climate elevation 

摘      要：In forest ecosystems, interactions between overstory trees and understory herbs play an important role in driving plant species diversity. However, reported links between overstory tree and understory herb species diversity have been inconsistent, due to variations in forest types and environmental conditions. Here, we measured species richness(SR) and diversity(Shannon-Wiener(H ) and Simpson s(D) indices) of overstory trees and understory herbs in the protected Tianshan Wild Fruit Forest(TWFF), Northwest China, to explore their relationships along the latitudinal, longitudinal, elevational, and climatic(current climate and paleoclimate) gradients in 2018. We found that SR, and H and D diversity indices of overstory trees and understory herbs exhibited a unimodal pattern with increasing latitude and elevation(P0.05) and negative associations with longitude(P0.01). Along the climatic gradients, there were U-shaped patterns in SR, and H and D diversity indices between trees and herbs(P0.05). SR, and H and D diversity indices for overstory tree species were positively associated with those for understory herbs(P0.01). These findings indicate that overstory trees and understory herbs should be protected concurrently in the TWFF to increase effectiveness of species diversity conservation programs.