Ethiopian vegetation types,climate and topography

Ethiopia is land of geographical contrasts with elevations that range from 125 m below sea level in the Danakil Depression to 4533 m above sea level in the Semien Mountains,a world heritage site.The diverse climate of various ecological regions of the country has driven the establishment of diverse vegetation,which range from Afroalpine vegetation in the mountains to the arid and semi-arid vegetation type in the lowlands.The formation of Ethiopian vegetation is highly connected to the climate and geological history of the country.Highland uplift and rift formation due to volcanic forces formed novel habitats with different topography and climatic conditions that have ultimately become drivers for vegetation diversification.Due to Ethiopia's connection with the temperate biome in the north and the Arabian Peninsula during the dry glacial period,the biotic assemblage of Ethiopian highlands consists of both Afrotropical and palearctic biota.In general,eight distinct vegetation types have been identified in Ethiopia,based mainly on elevation and climate gradients.These vegetation types host their own unique species,but also share several common species.Some of the vegetation types are identified as centers of endemism and have subsequently been identified globally as the East African Afromontane hotspot.Ethiopia is biologically rich,with more than 6500 vascular plant species.Of these species,12%are endemic mainly due to geographical isolation and unique climatic conditions.However,researchers have yet to extensively investigate the ecology,phenology,as well as the evolutionary,genetics,and conservation status of Ethiopian vegetations at community and species level over space and time.This lack of research is a barrier to achieving the goal of zero global plant extinctions.Taxa extinction risk assessment has not been extensively carried out for majority of Ethiopian species.Detailed research is needed to explore how vegetation and species respond to rapidly growing environmental change.Currently,human-induced climate change and habitat fragmentation are severely threatening the country's biodiversity,and the consequences of these effects have not been studied at large.Furthermore,we still lack scientific evidence on how micro-and macro-ecological and evolutionary processes have been shaping vegetation structures in this climatically,topographically,and geologically diverse country.These gaps in our knowledge represent an opportunity for ecologists,geneticists,evolutionary biologists,conservation biologists,and other experts to investigate the biodiversity status and the complex ecological processes involved in structuring vegetation dynamics so as to help take effective conservation actions.

Soil seed banks along elevational gradients in tropical, subtropical and subalpine forests in Yunnan Province, southwest China

Soil seed banks are a vital part of ecosystems and influence community dynamics and regeneration.Although soil seed banks in different habitats have been reported, how soil seed banks vary with elevational gradients in different climatic zones is still unknown. This paper investigates seed density,species composition and nonconstituent species of forest soil seed banks in Yunnan Province, southwest China. Similarity between the soil seed bank and standing vegetation was also examined. We collected soil samples from sites spanning 12 elevations in tropical rain forests, subtropical evergreen broadleaved forests and subalpine coniferous forests, and transported them to a glasshouse for germination trials for species identification. The soil seed banks of tropical and subtropical forests had much higher seed densities and species richness than those of subalpine forests. Seeds of woody species dominated the soil seed banks of tropical and subtropical forests, while herbs dominated those of subalpine forests.The nonconstituent species in the soil seed banks were all herbs and were most abundant in tropical forests, followed by subtropical forests but were completely absent from subalpine forests.

Different environmental factors drive tree species diversity along elevation gradients in three climatic zones in Yunnan,southern China

Elevational patterns of tree diversity are well studied worldwide.However,few studies have examined how seedlings respond to elevational gradients and whether their responses vary across climatic zones.In this study,we established three elevational transects in tropical,subtropical and subalpine mountain forests in Yunnan Province,southern China,to examine the responses of tree species and their seedlings to elevational gradients.Within each transect,we calculated species diversity indices and composition of both adult trees and seedlings at different elevations.For both adult trees and seedlings,we found that species diversity decreased with increasing elevation in both tropical and subalpine transects.Species composition showed significant elevational separation within all three transects.Many species had specific elevational preferences,but abundant tree species that occurred at specific elevations tended to have very limited recruitment in the understory.Our results highlight that the major factors that determine elevational distributions of tree species vary across climatic zones.Specifically,we found that the contribution of air temperature to tree species composition increased from tropical to subalpine transects,whereas the contribution of soil moisture decreased across these transects.

Functional trait space and redundancy of plant communities decrease toward cold temperature at high altitudes in Southwest China

Plant communities in mountainous areas shift gradually as climatic conditions change with altitude. How trait structure in multivariate space adapts to these varying climates in natural forest stands is unclear. Studying the multivariate functional trait structure and redundancy of tree communities along altitude gradients is crucial to understanding how temperature change affects natural forest stands. In this study, the leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous content from 1,590 trees were collected and used to construct the functional trait space of 12 plant communities at altitudes ranging from 800 m to 3,800 m across three mountains. Hypervolume overlap was calculated to quantify species trait redundancy per community. First,hypervolumes of species exclusion and full species set were calculated, respectively. Second, the overlap between these two volumes was calculated to obtain hypervolume overlap. Results showed that the functional trait space significantly increased with mean annual temperature toward lower altitudes within and across three mountains, whereas species trait redundancy had different patterns between mountains. Thus, warming can widen functional trait space and alter the redundancy in plant communities. The inconsistent patterns of redundancy between mountains suggest that warming exerts varying influences on different ecosystems. Identification of climate-vulnerable ecosystems is important in the face of global warming.

中国森林生物多样性监测网络:二十年群落构建机制探索的回顾与展望

中国森林生物多样性监测网络(CForBio)目前已经沿纬度梯度从寒温带到热带布设23个大型森林动态样地,监测1,893种木本植物,代表我国木本植物种类的近1/6。CForBio的主要目标之一是研究森林群落的构建机制。本文综述了近20年来CForBio在群落构建机制探索方面取得的进展,包括生物多样性时空格局、生境过滤、生物相互作用、局域扩散和区域因素以及利用新技术取得的新认知等。CForBio研究发现:(1)生境过滤和扩散限制共同决定种–面积关系及β多样性等多样性格局,但二者的相对作用在不同样地及不同尺度存在差异;(2)生境过滤对局域群落构建的作用广泛存在,但很难量化其对群落构建的重要性;(3)同种负密度制约在不同气候带样地普遍存在,负密度制约的强度主要由植物菌根类型介导,并随植物生活史类型、功能性状及环境变化而变化;(4)扩散限制在局域群落构建中发挥关键作用,而区域因素如区域地质历史、区域物种库大小等塑造不同生物地理区群落之间的生物多样性差异;(5)宏观和微观两个方面的新技术促进群落构建机制的研究。在宏观方面,遥感技术以低成本使大范围、多尺度的连续群落生物多样性监测和时空比较研究成为可能;另一方面,叶绿体基因技术和代谢组学等微观技术能促进推导群落构建的分子机制。同时,本文还总结了以往研究的不足,并展望了基于森林动态样地开展群落构建机制研究的未来发展,特别强调了:(1)关注群落构建研究中的尺度问题;(2)深入开展多维度(物种、功能和系统发育)、多营养级生物互作相关的研究;(3)拓展全球变化对群落构建影响的研究;(4)融合观测–实验–模型多种手段开展群落构建机制的研究;(5)连结“群落构建理论研究”和“森林管理实践”。总之,中国森林生物多样性监测网络的长期监测和联网研究是森林群落构建机制研究的重要基础,也是推动群落构建理论、解决森林管理难题的重要平台。

Environmental and spatial contributions to seedling and adult tree assembly across tropical,subtropical and subalpine elevational gradients

Aims Quantifying the relative importance of the mechanisms that drive community assembly in forests is a crucial issue in community ecol-ogy.The present study aims to understand the ways in which niche-based and spatially based processes influence community assembly in areas in different climatic conditions and how these processes change during the transition from seedling to adult.Methods In this study,we investigated how taxonomic and phylogenetic beta diversity in seedling and adult stages of forest trees change across three elevational transects in tropical,subtropical and subalpine for-ests in Southwest China,and the relationships of these changes to the environment and inter-site distances.We quantified the relative contribution of environmental conditions and spatial distribution to taxonomic and phylogenetic beta diversity of both seedling and adult life stages along each elevational transect.We also quantified the taxonomic and phylogenetic similarity between seedlings and adult trees along elevations.Important Findings Taxonomic and phylogenetic beta diversity of both seedlings and adult trees increased with an increase in both environmental distance and spatial distance in all three transects.On both taxonomic and phylo-genetic levels,the effects of environmental filtering and spatial dispos-ition varied between life stages and among forest types.Phylogenetic similarity between seedlings and adult trees increased with elevation,although the taxonomic similarity did not show clear elevational pat-terns.Our results suggest that the relative contribution of niche-based and space-based processes to taxonomic and phylogenetic assem-blages varies across major plant life stages and among forest types.Our findings also highlight the importance of ontogenetic stages for fully understanding community assembly of long-lived tree species.