Journal Article

Environmental Determinants of Woody Plant Diversity at a Regional Scale in China

Qian, Hong

2013

Overview

Understanding what drives the geographic variation of species richness across the globe is a fundamental goal of ecology and biogeography. Environmental variables have been considered as drivers of global diversity patterns but there is no consensus among ecologists on what environmental variables are primary drivers of the geographic variation of species richness. Here, I examine the relationship of woody plant species richness at a regional scale in China with sixteen environmental variables representing energy availability, water availability, energy-water balance, seasonality, and habitat heterogeneity. I found that temperature seasonality is the best predictor of woody species richness in China. Other important environmental variables include annual precipitation, mean temperature of the coldest month, and potential evapotranspiration. The best model explains 85% of the variation in woody plant species richness at the regional scale in China.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Animal behavior / Annual precipitation / Biodiversity / Biogeography / China / Climate / Ecology / Environment / Evapotranspiration / Evapotranspiration models / Flowers & plants / Geography / Heterogeneity / Hypotheses / Mean temperatures / Models, Theoretical / Museums / Plant Dispersal - physiology / Plant diversity / Plant Physiological Phenomena / Plant species / Potential evapotranspiration / Precipitation / Provinces / Rain / Regional analysis / Regression Analysis / Seasonal variations / Seasons / Species richness / Species Specificity / Temperature / Variables / Water availability / Water balance / Woody plants