Relationship between Tree Richness and Temporary Stability of Plant Communities: A Case Study of a Forest in Northeast China
Open Access
Abstract
The relationship between diversity and stability is a classic issue in ecology, but no general consensus has been achieved. To address this relationship, a field survey of a forest in Northeast China was conducted. The temporary stability was defined from the perspective of community characteristics. The results showed that communities with the highest temporary stability value were characterized by a single dominant species. A significant linear relationship with a low R2 value was observed between temporary stability and tree richness. When dominant and non-dominant tree species were studied, no significant linear relationship was obtained between temporary stability and non-dominant tree richness. However, the relationship between temporary stability and dominant tree richness was significant with a high R2 value, and the temporary stability decreased with increasing dominant tree richness. This study demonstrates that dominant tree richness is closely related to temporary stability, and temporary stability can serve as a stability indicator. The results provide a new perspective for understanding stability and additional information for revealing the relationship between diversity and stability in forest ecosystems.Keywords
Funding Information
- Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (SQ2019FY010110-2)
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Daytime warming lowers community temporal stability by reducing the abundance of dominant, stable speciesGlobal Change Biology, 2016
- Temporal stability in forest productivity increases with tree diversity due to asynchrony in species dynamicsEcology Letters, 2014
- Stability and Diversity of EcosystemsScience, 2007
- Biodiversity and ecosystem stability in a decade-long grassland experimentNature, 2006
- Population stability is higher in more diverse annual plant communitiesEcology Letters, 2003
- The diversity–stability debateNature, 2000
- Benefits of plant diversity to ecosystems: immediate, filter and founder effectsJournal of Ecology, 1998
- Biodiversity: Population Versus Ecosystem StabilityEcology, 1996
- Ecological stability of forests and sustainable silvicultureForest Ecology and Management, 1995
- The complexity and stability of ecosystemsNature, 1984