College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
Sci Rep. 2018 Aug 8;8(1):11868. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-30400-1.
Understanding diversity patterns and community structure of bryophytes will help integrate nature conservation at multiple biotic-group levels. We conducted a survey of ground bryophytes in a subtropical forest along an edge-to-interior gradient in South China. We recorded 11 liverwort species from 10 genera of seven families, and 26 moss species from 23 genera of 16 families in three transects. A two-way cluster analysis detected the environmental gradient between the forest edge and forest interior for bryophytes with habitat specificity. Functional diversity of bryophytes differed significantly across an edge-to-interior gradient. The range and median in both structural and functional diversity decreased remarkably from the forest edge to the interior. Multi-response permutation procedures showed significant differences in species composition between the forest-edge and forest-interior, and between the intermediate and forest-interior transects. Seven species were detected with a significant indicator value for indicating environmental conditions in the forest edge, while only one such species was found indicative of the intermediate transect. Our results demonstrate that remarkable edge effects exist for species composition and functional diversity patterns, and the forest edge is a marginal habitat with high biotic heterogeneity. Furthermore, functional diversity metrics are more sensitive to the edge effect than species diversity.
了解苔藓植物的多样性模式和群落结构将有助于整合多个生物群层面的自然保护。我们在华南的一个沿边缘到内部梯度的亚热带森林中对地生苔藓植物进行了调查。我们在三条样带上记录了 10 属 7 科的 11 种苔类植物和 23 属 16 科的 26 种藓类植物。双向聚类分析检测到苔藓植物具有栖息地特异性的环境梯度在森林边缘和内部之间。苔藓植物的功能多样性在边缘到内部梯度上有显著差异。结构和功能多样性的范围和中位数从森林边缘到内部显著降低。多响应置换程序显示，森林边缘和内部、中间和内部样带之间的物种组成存在显著差异。有 7 种物种具有显著的指示值，可指示森林边缘的环境条件，而只有 1 种物种指示中间样带。我们的结果表明，物种组成和功能多样性模式存在显著的边缘效应，森林边缘是一个具有高度生物异质性的边缘生境。此外，功能多样性指标比物种多样性对边缘效应更敏感。
