Chen Zhongzheng, Li Xueyou, Song Wenyu, Li Quan, Onditi Kenneth, Khanal Laxman, Jiang Xuelong
Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of the Conservation and Exploitation of Biological Resources College of Life Sciences Anhui Normal University Wuhu China.
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming China.
Ecol Evol. 2020 Feb 23;10(5):2545-2558. doi: 10.1002/ece3.6083. eCollection 2020 Mar.
Understanding the species diversity patterns along elevational gradients is critical for biodiversity conservation in mountainous regions. We examined the elevational patterns of species richness and turnover, and evaluated the effects of spatial and environmental factors on nonvolant small mammals (hereafter "small mammal") predicted a priori by alternative hypotheses (mid-domain effect [MDE], species-area relationship [SAR], energy, environmental stability, and habitat complexity]) proposed to explain the variation of diversity. We designed a standardized sampling scheme to trap small mammals at ten elevational bands across the entire elevational gradient on Yulong Mountain, southwest China. A total of 1,808 small mammals representing 23 species were trapped. We observed the hump-shaped distribution pattern of the overall species richness along elevational gradient. Insectivores, rodents, large-ranged species, and endemic species richness showed the general hump-shaped pattern but peaked at different elevations, whereas the small-ranged species and endemic species favored the decreasing richness pattern. The MDE and the energy hypothesis were supported, whereas little support was found for the SAR, the environmental stability hypothesis, and the habitat complexity. However, the primary driver(s) for richness patterns differed among the partitioning groups, with NDVI (the normalized difference vegetation index) and MDE being the most important variables for the total richness pattern. Species turnover for all small mammal groups increased with elevation, and it supported a decrease in community similarity with elevational distance. Our results emphasized for increased conservation efforts in the higher elevation regions of the Yulong Mountain.
了解沿海拔梯度的物种多样性模式对于山区生物多样性保护至关重要。我们研究了物种丰富度和周转率的海拔模式，并评估了空间和环境因素对非飞行小型哺乳动物（以下简称“小型哺乳动物”）的影响，这些因素是由为解释多样性变化而提出的替代假说（中间区域效应[MDE]、物种-面积关系[SAR]、能量、环境稳定性和栖息地复杂性）预先预测的。我们设计了一种标准化采样方案，在中国西南部玉龙雪山的整个海拔梯度上的十个海拔带捕获小型哺乳动物。总共捕获了代表23个物种的1808只小型哺乳动物。我们观察到整个物种丰富度沿海拔梯度呈驼峰状分布模式。食虫动物、啮齿动物、大范围分布物种和特有物种丰富度呈现出一般的驼峰状模式，但在不同海拔高度达到峰值，而小范围分布物种和特有物种则呈现出丰富度下降模式。MDE和能量假说得到了支持，而SAR、环境稳定性假说和栖息地复杂性假说几乎没有得到支持。然而，丰富度模式的主要驱动因素在划分组之间有所不同，归一化植被指数（NDVI）和MDE是总丰富度模式中最重要的变量。所有小型哺乳动物组的物种周转率随海拔升高而增加，这支持了群落相似性随海拔距离降低的观点。我们的结果强调应加强对玉龙雪山高海拔地区的保护力度。
