Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: exploring large-scale patterns in mainland China

doi:10.3832/ifor0627-005

Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: exploring large-scale patterns in mainland China

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 5, Issue 5, Pages 230-234 (2012)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0627-005
Published: Oct 02, 2012 - Copyright © 2012 SISEF

Short Communications

PDF Version

Full Text

Citation

Relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are vital to understand ecosystem properties, and have frequently been addressed in small-scale studies. However, interactions and changes differ at large scales, and should be similarly evaluated to monitor biodiversity and ecosystem functional alterations. In the present study, Mainland China was divided into 241 quadrats of 2° latitude by 2° longitude. Ecosystem function was comprehensively assessed using three indicator variables in each quadrat, primary productivity, bird species richness, and relative humidity. Relationships between each ecosystem function variable were regressed against seed plant species richness. All three indicators exhibited the same change model, a linear model when plant species richness was under 5.000 species, and a hump-back/quadratic model when seed plant richness was over 5.000 species, with an increase in seed plant species richness at a larger scale.

Keywords

Ecosystem function, Seed plants, Species richness, Model, China

Authors’ address

(1)

College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, 100875 Beijing (China)

(2)

College of Environment and Resources, Shanxi University, 030006 Taiyuan (China)

Corresponding author

J-T Zhang
Zhangjt@bnu.edu.cn

Citation

Zhang J-T, Wang C (2012). Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: exploring large-scale patterns in mainland China. iForest 5: 230-234. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0627-005

Academic Editor

Marco Borghetti

Paper history

Received: Apr 14, 2012
Accepted: Jul 20, 2012

First online: Oct 02, 2012
Publication Date: Oct 30, 2012
Publication Time: 2.47 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Breakdown by View Type

(Waiting for server response...)

Article Usage

Total Article Views: 47069
(from publication date up to now)

Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 40361
Abstract Page Views: 2178
PDF Downloads: 3362
Citation/Reference Downloads: 41
XML Downloads: 1127

Web Metrics
Days since publication: 4221
Overall contacts: 47069
Avg. contacts per week: 78.06

Article Citations

Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Feb 2023)

Total number of cites (since 2012): 7
Average cites per year: 0.58

(no Plumx Metrics available for this paper)

Publication Metrics

by Dimensions ^©

Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

(1)

Akaike H (1974)
A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 19 (6): 716-723.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(2)

Begon M, Harper JL, Townsend CR (1996)
Ecology: individual, population and communities. Blackwell Scientific, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Gscholar

(3)

Cadotte M, Cavender-Bares J, Tilman D (2009)
Using phylogenetic, functional and trait diversity to understand patterns of plant community productivity. PLoS One 4 (5): 843-845.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(4)

Chapin FS, Zavaleta ES, Eviners VT, Naylor RL, Vitousek PM, Reynolds HL (2000)
Consequences of changing biodiversity. Nature 405: 234-242.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(5)

Chase JM, Leibold MA (2002)
Spatial scale dictates the productivity-biodiversity relationship. Nature 416: 427-430.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(6)

Chen LZ (1993)
Biodiversity in China. Science Press, Beijing, China.
Gscholar

(7)

de Groot RS, Wilson MA, Boumans RMJ (2002)
A typology for the classification, description and valuation of ecosystem functions, goods and services. Ecological Economics 41 (3): 393-408.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(8)

Díaz S, Cabido M (2001)
Vive la différence: plant functional diversity matters to ecosystem processes. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 16 (11): 646-655.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(9)

Editor Committee of Fauna Sinica (1998)
Fauna Sinica - Aves, vol. 1-14. Science Press, Beijing, China.
Gscholar

(10)

Foster B, Dickson TL, Murphy CA, Karel IS, Smith VH (2004)
Propagule pools mediate community assembly and diversity-ecosystem regulation along a grassland productivity gradient. Journal of Ecology 92: 435-449.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(11)

Gillman LN, Wright SD (2006)
The influence of productivity on the species richness of plants: a critical assessment. Ecology 87: 1234-1243.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(12)

Grace JB (1999)
The factors controlling species density in herbaceous plant communities: an assessment. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 2: 1-28.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(13)

Grace JB, Anderson TM, Smith MD, Seabloom E, Andelman SJ, Meche G, Weiher E, Allain LK, Jutila H, Sankaran M, Knops J, Ritchie M, Willig MR (2007)
Does species diversity limit productivity in natural grassland communities? Ecology Letters 10 (8): 680-689.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(14)

Grime JP (1997)
Biodiversity and ecosystem function: the debate deepens. Science 277: 1260-1261.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(15)

Hector A, Schmid B, Beierkuhnlein C, Caldeira MC, Diemer M, Dimitrakopoulos PG (1999)
Plant diversity and productivity experiments in European grasslands. Science 286: 1123-1127.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(16)

Hillebrand H, Matthiessen B (2009)
Biodiversity in a complex world: consolidation and progress in functional biodiversity research. Ecology Letters 12: 1405-1419.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(17)

Hooper DU, Chapin FS, Ewel JJ, Hector A, Inchausti P, Lavorel S (2005)
Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: a consensus of current knowledge. Ecological Monograph 75: 3-35.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(18)

Hu HJ, Jiang ZG, Wang ZW (2001)
Correlation between avian and mammalian species richness in different geographic scales in China. Chinese Biodiversityï»¿ 9 (2): 95-101.
Gscholar

(19)

Hughes JB, Petchey OL (2001)
Merging perspectives on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 16 (5): 222-223.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(20)

Huston M (1993)
Biological diversity, soils, and economics. Science 262: 1676-1680.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(21)

Keddy P (2005)
Putting the plants back into plant ecology: six pragmatic models for understanding and conserving plant diversity. Annals of Botany 96: 177-189.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(22)

Li DQ, Sun CY, Zhang XS (1998)
Modelling the net primary productivity of the natural potential vegetation in China. Acta Botanica Sinica 40 (6): 560-566.
Gscholar

(23)

Lieth H, Box E (1972)
Evapotranspiration and primary productivity. Publication in Climatology 25 (2): 37-46.
Gscholar

(24)

Loreau M (2001)
Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: current knowledge and future challenges. Science 294: 804-808.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(25)

Mittelbach GG, Steiner CF, Scheiner SM, Gross KL, Reynolds HL, Waide RB, Willig MR, Dodson SI, Gough L (2001)
What is the observed relationship between species richness and productivity? Ecology 82: 2381-2396.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(26)

Northwest Research Institute of Botany (2000)
Flora of Loess Plateau. Science Press, Beijing, China.
Gscholar

(27)

Partel M, Laanisto L, Zobel M (2007)
Contrasting plant productivity-diversity relationships across latitude: the role of evolutionary history. Ecology 88 (5): 1091-1097.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(28)

Smith MD, Wilcox JC, Kelly T, Knapp AK (2004)
Dominance not richness determines invasibility of tallgrass prairie. Oikos 106: 253-262.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(29)

Spehn EM, Hector A, Joshi J, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Schmid B, Bazeley-White E (2005)
Ecosystem effects of biodiversity manipulations in European grasslands. Ecological Monograph 75: 37-63.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(30)

Suding KN, Miller AE, Bechtold H, Bowman WD (2006)
The consequence of species loss on ecosystem nitrogen cycling depends on community compensation. Oecologia 149: 141-149.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(31)

Thompson K, Askew AP, Grime JP, Dunnett NP, Willis AJ (2005)
Biodiversity, ecosystem function and plant traits in mature and immature plant communities. Functional Ecology 19: 355-358.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(32)

Tilman D, Reich PB, Knops J, Wedin D, Mielke T, Lehman C (2001)
Diversity and productivity in a long-term grassland experiment. Science 294: 843-845.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(33)

Waide RB, Willig MR, Steiner CF (1999)
The relationship between productivity and species richness. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 30: 257-300.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(34)

Wu ZY (1980)
Vegetation of China. Science Press, Beijing, China.
Gscholar

(35)

Wu ZY (1987)
Flora of Tibet. Science Press, Beijing, China.
Gscholar

(36)

Wu ZY (2004)
Flora of China, electronic version. Vol.5-82. Science Press, Beijing, China.
Gscholar

(37)

Zhang JT (2002)
A study on relations of vegetation, climate and soils in Shanxi province, China. Plant Ecology 162: 23-31.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(38)

Zhang JT, Dong YR (2010)
Factors affecting species diversity of plant communities and the restoration process in the loess area of China. Ecological Engineering 36: 345-350.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(39)

Zhang JT, Ru WM, Li B (2006)
Relationships between vegetation and climate on the Loess Plateau in China. Folia Geobotanica 41: 151-163.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(40)

Zhang JT, Zhang F (2007)
Diversity and composition of plant functional groups in mountain forests of the Lishan Nature Reserve, North China. Botanical Studies 48: 339-348.
Online | Gscholar

(41)

Zheng GM (2005)
Classification and distribution of birds in China. Science Press, Beijing, China.
Gscholar

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry

Contents

Search

Journal Info

Journal Subjects and Fields

For Authors

For Reviewers

For Readers

SISEF Publishing

Search iForest Contents