Influence of environmental variability on phylogenetic diversity and trait diversity within Calligonum communities

Authors

  • Jian-Cheng Wang Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, P.R. China
  • Hong-Lan Yang Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, P.R. China
  • Xi-Yong Wang Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, P.R. China
  • Wei Shi Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, P.R. China
  • Bo-Rong Pan Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, P.R. China

Keywords:

Calligonum, community composition, ecological process, phylogenetic community structure, phylogenetic signal

Abstract

Since phylogenetic data provide the evolutionary history of the species and traits are the result of adaptation to the environmental conditions, joint analysis of these two aspects and ecological data may illuminate that how ecological processes affect the evolution of species and assembly of communities. In this study, we compared the community structure of sibling communities in order to illuminate the influence of environmental variability. We chose different Calligonum communities as research subjects which grow in active sand dunes and stabilized sand fields. Our results show that species which co-occurred in C. rubicundum community have greater phylogenetic evenness compared to species in other communities where co-occurring plants had similar traits. Soil variability might legitimately explain this result. Based on the similarity between the pattern of trait diversity and the pattern of phylogenetic diversity, we inferred that the evolution of traits is conservative and species of all but C. rubicundum communities are under more intense selection pressure.

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Published

2014-02-24

How to Cite

Wang, J.-C., Yang, H.-L., Wang, X.-Y., Shi, W., & Pan, B.-R. (2014). Influence of environmental variability on phylogenetic diversity and trait diversity within Calligonum communities. EXCLI Journal, 13, 172–177. Retrieved from https://www.excli.de/index.php/excli/article/view/691

Issue

Vol. 13 (2014)

Section

Original articles

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