Contribution of conspecific negative density dependence to species diversity is increasing towards low environmental limitation in Japanese forests

0548271 - BÚ 2022 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Fibich, Pavel - Ishihara, M. I. - Suzuki, S. N. - Doležal, Jiří - Altman, Jan
Contribution of conspecific negative density dependence to species diversity is increasing towards low environmental limitation in Japanese forests.
Scientific Reports. Roč. 11, č. 1 (2021), č. článku 18712. ISSN 2045-2322. E-ISSN 2045-2322
R&D Projects: GA ČR GJ20-05840Y
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : forest * species diversity * Japan
OECD category: Ecology
Impact factor: 4.997, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Open access

We found significant effects of local conspecific density on diversity in plant communities along four environmental gradients in the Japanese archipelago. The strength of local conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD) changes with altitude, and temperature and snow depth, which also affect species number. All these environmental gradients could be considered as surrogates of anthropogenic climate change. Regardless of the mechanisms involved, our results suggest that along the gradients, biotic interactions (represented by CNDD) were changing and have strong effects on species composition and diversity in forests. These effects are important under the current climate change scenario, especially when: (1) most of the endemic species in Japan are locally restricted in the mountain areas and the archipelago provides a regional diversity hotspot, (2) some forest types are at the edges of their climatic ranges and regulated by temperature, (3) we observed that species diversity was highly correlated with altitude, temperature and snow depth gradients.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0324353