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Determining spatial heterogeneity in species richness of plant community
Author(s) -
Chen Jun,
Shiyomi Masae,
Wei Zhicheng
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
grassland science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.388
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1744-697X
pISSN - 1744-6961
DOI - 10.1111/grs.12078
Subject(s) - quadrat , species richness , spatial heterogeneity , ecology , grassland , biomass (ecology) , geography , plant community , spatial ecology , variance (accounting) , spatial variability , biology , statistics , mathematics , accounting , shrub , business
Species richness (number of species) per small quadrat is an important characteristic of plant communities that, along with cover and biomass, can be readily measured in field surveys. We show that variance in the number of species among quadrats can be used to determine the spatial heterogeneity of plant communities. Comparisons between variance estimated based on the observed number of species among quadrats, and variance calculated based on an assumption that all species are arranged randomly among quadrats, can describe the spatial structure of species richness. We show field examples with different degrees of spatial heterogeneity in species richness to demonstrate how to survey, analyze and interpret: three natural grasslands with low heterogeneity in China, and a weedy grassland community with high heterogeneity in Japan.