Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
College of Life Sciences, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, 235000, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 18;7(1):8743. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-09274-2.
Studies on elevational gradients in biodiversity have accumulated in recent decades. However, few studies have compared the elevational patterns of diversity between the different slopes of a single mountain. We investigated the elevational distribution of rodent diversity (alpha and beta diversity) and its underlying mechanisms along the southern and northern slopes of Mt. Taibai, the highest mountain in the Qinling Mountains, China. The species richness of rodents on the two slopes showed distinct distribution patterns, with a monotonically decreasing pattern found along the southern slope and a hump-shaped elevational pattern evident along the northern slope. Multi-model inference suggested that temperature was an important explanatory factor for the richness pattern along the southern slope, and the mid-domain effect (MDE) was important in explaining the richness pattern along the northern slope. The two slopes also greatly differed in the elevational patterns of species turnover, with the southern slope demonstrating a U-shaped curve and the northern slope possessing a roughly hump-shaped pattern. Our results suggest that even within the same mountain, organisms inhabiting different slopes may possess distinct diversity patterns, and the underlying mechanisms may also differ. The potential role of the factors associated with slope aspect in shaping diversity, therefore, cannot be ignored.
近几十年来，关于生物多样性海拔梯度的研究不断积累。然而，很少有研究比较过同一座山的不同坡面之间多样性的海拔模式。我们调查了中国秦岭最高峰太白山南坡和北坡啮齿动物多样性（α多样性和β多样性）的海拔分布及其潜在机制。两坡啮齿动物的物种丰富度呈现出明显不同的分布模式，南坡呈单调递减模式，北坡呈驼峰状海拔模式。多模型推断表明，温度是解释南坡丰富度模式的重要因素，中域效应（MDE）在解释北坡丰富度模式中很重要。两坡的物种更替的海拔模式也有很大差异，南坡呈 U 形曲线，北坡呈大致驼峰状。我们的结果表明，即使在同一座山内，栖息在不同坡面的生物可能具有不同的多样性模式，潜在的机制也可能不同。因此，不能忽视与坡面朝向相关的因素在塑造多样性方面的潜在作用。
