{"title":"Responses of plant productivity and diversity to drought in Carex schmidtii tussock wetlands, Northeast China","authors":"Yuan Xin, Qing Qi, Mingye Zhang, Dongjie Zhang, Geng Cui, Yu An, Yanji Wang, Shouzheng Tong, Xianglong Xing","doi":"10.1007/s42974-023-00167-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Global change projections predict more recurrent and intense drought events that along with their legacy effects have potentially long-term impacts on wetland ecosystem structure and function. <i>Carex schmidtii</i> tussocks in wetlands can form different microtopographies that maintain biodiversity and ecological balance. However, how these abiotic factors and their interactions drive <i>C. schmidtii</i> tussock wetland community dynamics and post-drought recovery are still unclear. Therefore, we selected three <i>C. schmidtii</i> tussock wetland types (drought, drought-rewetting, wetting) in the Momoge National Nature Reserve for further investigation. We combined relative importance value, alpha diversity, community similarity and productivity to explore drought and microtopography effects on plant community structure and function. Drought reduced biomass and <i>C. schmidtii</i> dominance, but increased richness and diversity. The degree of <i>C. schmidtii</i> dominance and community biomass was similar to those in the wetting wetland after drought-rewetting, but similarity was low. Plant diversity on tussock hummocks was lower than in hummock interspaces. Lower plant diversity was favorable for biomass accumulation among hummocks and in the overall community, but an opposite trend was found between hummock interspaces. Under drought, loss of <i>C. schmidtii</i> dominance and its biomass proportion resulted in lower hummock biomass, plant diversity, and richness compared to hummock interspaces. Furthermore, there would be significant differences in drought effects on plant similarity across the different microtopographies. Compared to hummock interspaces, hummock community structure was more similar to the overall community, was more susceptible to drought, and did not readily recover. Therefore, in restoration practice, <i>C. schmidtii</i> and hummock community structure should preferentially be restored, to ensure wetland recovery and stability.</p>","PeriodicalId":50994,"journal":{"name":"Community Ecology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Community Ecology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s42974-023-00167-1","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Global change projections predict more recurrent and intense drought events that along with their legacy effects have potentially long-term impacts on wetland ecosystem structure and function. Carex schmidtii tussocks in wetlands can form different microtopographies that maintain biodiversity and ecological balance. However, how these abiotic factors and their interactions drive C. schmidtii tussock wetland community dynamics and post-drought recovery are still unclear. Therefore, we selected three C. schmidtii tussock wetland types (drought, drought-rewetting, wetting) in the Momoge National Nature Reserve for further investigation. We combined relative importance value, alpha diversity, community similarity and productivity to explore drought and microtopography effects on plant community structure and function. Drought reduced biomass and C. schmidtii dominance, but increased richness and diversity. The degree of C. schmidtii dominance and community biomass was similar to those in the wetting wetland after drought-rewetting, but similarity was low. Plant diversity on tussock hummocks was lower than in hummock interspaces. Lower plant diversity was favorable for biomass accumulation among hummocks and in the overall community, but an opposite trend was found between hummock interspaces. Under drought, loss of C. schmidtii dominance and its biomass proportion resulted in lower hummock biomass, plant diversity, and richness compared to hummock interspaces. Furthermore, there would be significant differences in drought effects on plant similarity across the different microtopographies. Compared to hummock interspaces, hummock community structure was more similar to the overall community, was more susceptible to drought, and did not readily recover. Therefore, in restoration practice, C. schmidtii and hummock community structure should preferentially be restored, to ensure wetland recovery and stability.
期刊介绍:
Community Ecology, established by the merger of two ecological periodicals, Coenoses and Abstracta Botanica was launched in an effort to create a common global forum for community ecologists dealing with plant, animal and/or microbial communities from terrestrial, marine or freshwater systems. Main subject areas: (i) community-based ecological theory; (ii) modelling of ecological communities; (iii) community-based ecophysiology; (iv) temporal dynamics, including succession; (v) trophic interactions, including food webs and competition; (vi) spatial pattern analysis, including scaling issues; (vii) community patterns of species richness and diversity; (viii) sampling ecological communities; (ix) data analysis methods.