Untangling the contributions of species and site to beta diversity in a
temperate forest region
- Minhui Hao,
- Qingmin Yue,
- Chunyu Zhang
, - Xiuhai Zhao
, - klaus Gadow
Abstract
The variation of species composition among communities, commonly known
as beta diversity, is at the heart of ecology because of its role in
explaining community assembly. This study presents a new approach that
integrates functional and phylogenetic characteristics into the
traditional beta diversity framework. Drawing on the observations from a
large-scale forest inventory network, our results show that functional-
and phylogenetic-based metrics offer distinct insights beyond those
provided by species-based metrics. Species-based metrics help to
identify species with specific distribution and locations with unique
composition. Functional and phylogenetic-based metrics aid in
identifying species and locations with distinctive ecological and
evolutionary attributes. Furthermore, upon integrating functional and
phylogenetic information, the relative contribution of deterministic
processes in driving biodiversity patterns become more apparent. Our
expanded framework provides a new opportunity to characterize the
ecological uniqueness of species and locations, helping to reveal more
detailed insights into assembly processes and guide biodiversity
conservation.