Relationship between canopy structure and species composition of an evergreen broadleaf forest in Tiantong region, Zhejiang, China

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2022.0047

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims The ecological mechanisms underlying species compositional differences among communities are crucial to understanding and predicting biodiversity changes. One of such mechanisms is the spatial structure independent of ground-level habitat (e.g., soil nutrients and topographic parameters). However, the primary drivers of this spatial structure are still unclear. Forest canopy structure can alter understory microclimates, which in turn influences the spatial structure and species compositional differences. We know little so far about such influence of the forest canopy structure. This gap has hindered our understanding of the ecological mechanisms underlying species compositional difference.

Methods The study was conducted in a 20 hm² evergreen broadleaf forest plot in the Tiantong region, Zhejiang Province, Eastern China. UVA-based LiDAR was used to estimate the high-precision forest canopy structure of the Tiantong plot. The redundancy analysis and the variance decomposition method were used to explore the relative importance of forest canopy structure and other potential factors on community species composition.

Important findings Our research showed that: (1) In the case of excluding the effect of canopy structure, the spatial structure independent of the ground-level habitat was one of the main contributors to the species compositional differences in the Tiantong plot. It explained 25.2%, 28.1%, and 8.0% of the variation in species composition at the scales of 100 m²,and 8.0% of the variation in species composition at the scales of 100 m² Our research showed that: (1) In the case of excluding the effect of canopy structure, the spatial structure independent of the ground-level habitat was one of the main contributors to the species compositional differences in the Tiantong plot. It explained 25.2%, 28.1%, and 8.0% of the variation in species composition at the scales of 100 m², 400 m²,400 m² 400 m², and 2 500 m²,and 2 500 m² and 2 500 m², respectively. (2) Including the effect of forest canopy structure significantly reduced the explanation power of the spatial structure by about 1/3 (26.2%-36.0%). (3) Among canopy structure factors, canopy height had the most significant influence on species composition, followed by internal canopy structure. With the increase of the plot scale, the effects of canopy height decreased while the impacts of internal canopy structure increased. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that canopy structure is one of the main drivers of spatial structure independent of ground-level habitat. Our results also clarify the relative importance of canopy height and internal canopy structure on species composition and provide new perspectives to understand the ecological mechanisms underlying species compositional differences among forest plant communities.

Key words: canopy structure, species composition differences, ground-level habitat, spatial structure, variance partitioning analysis

YU Qiu-Wu, YANG Jing, SHEN Guo-Chun. Relationship between canopy structure and species composition of an evergreen broadleaf forest in Tiantong region, Zhejiang, China[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2022, 46(5): 529-538.

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Figures/Tables 4

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结构类别 Structure type	冠层结构指数 Canopy structure index	描述 Description	文献 Reference
高度结构 Height structure	最大树高 Maximum tree height	群落中树冠高度的最大值 The maximum value of canopy height in a community	Cazzolla-Gatti et al., 2017
	95%分位数高度 95% quantile height	近似于森林冠层峰值高度, 由首次回波统计获得 Approximates the peak height of the forest canopy, obtained from the point cloud of the first echo	Riaño et al., 2004
	标准差(首次回波) Standard deviation (first echo)	反映单木树高的离散程度 Describe the dispersion of each individual tree	Nelson et al., 1988
内部结构 Internal structure	叶高度多样性 Foliage height diversity	描述植被剖面的叶密度和高度分布 Describe the density and height distribution of foliage in a vegetation profile	Clawges et al., 2008
	植被穿透率 Vegetation permeability	植被首次回波在二次回波中的比例, 由首次回波和所有二次回波计算所得 Ratio of the first echo of vegetation to the second echo, calculated from the first echo and all the second echoes	Moffiet et al., 2005
	偏度(首次回波) Skewness (first echo)	与峰态(首次回波)高度相关 Highly correlated with kurtosis (first echo)	Antonarakis et al., 2008
	郁闭度 Closure	冠层的郁闭度 Closure of the canopy	Korhonen et al., 2011

结构类别 Structure type	冠层结构指数 Canopy structure index	描述 Description	文献 Reference
高度结构 Height structure	最大树高 Maximum tree height	群落中树冠高度的最大值 The maximum value of canopy height in a community	Cazzolla-Gatti et al., 2017
	95%分位数高度 95% quantile height	近似于森林冠层峰值高度, 由首次回波统计获得 Approximates the peak height of the forest canopy, obtained from the point cloud of the first echo	Riaño et al., 2004
	标准差(首次回波) Standard deviation (first echo)	反映单木树高的离散程度 Describe the dispersion of each individual tree	Nelson et al., 1988
内部结构 Internal structure	叶高度多样性 Foliage height diversity	描述植被剖面的叶密度和高度分布 Describe the density and height distribution of foliage in a vegetation profile	Clawges et al., 2008
	植被穿透率 Vegetation permeability	植被首次回波在二次回波中的比例, 由首次回波和所有二次回波计算所得 Ratio of the first echo of vegetation to the second echo, calculated from the first echo and all the second echoes	Moffiet et al., 2005
	偏度(首次回波) Skewness (first echo)	与峰态(首次回波)高度相关 Highly correlated with kurtosis (first echo)	Antonarakis et al., 2008
	郁闭度 Closure	冠层的郁闭度 Closure of the canopy	Korhonen et al., 2011