Evidence that spatial scale and environment factors explains community
assembly in grassland communities
Abstract
Understanding community assembly of living organisms has been a
prominent ecological question since the early days of the discipline.
The impact of habitat filtering and limiting similarity on plant
community structures is well-known, as both processes are influenced by
individual responses to environmental changes. However, identifying and
quantifying potential abiotic and biotic factors that ultimately
influence community structures at a fine scale remains a challenge.
Here, we employed different species pool null models to assess the
importance of habitat filtering and limiting similarity at two spatial
scales. We used 63 natural vegetation plots, each measuring 5m x 5m,
with 3 nested subplots measuring 1m x 1m, from the 2021 field survey, to
examine the alpha diversity of plots and subplots as well as Beta
diversity. We also used linear mixed-effects models (LMEs) to assess how
environmental factors affect the assembly process. Our findings indicate
that habitat filtering was the dominant assembly process at both the
plot and subplot levels, while limiting similarity was stronger at the
subplot level. Plot-level limiting similarity was positively correlated
with fine-scale partitioning, suggesting that trait divergence resulted
from a combination of limiting similarity species and spatial
partitioning. Our results also suggest that the assembly process varies
more strongly along the mean annual temperature (MAT) gradient than the
mean annual precipitation (MAP). Additionally, the community assembly
process of different traits varied with these environmental factors,
indicating the importance of multi-dimensional traits. This study
provides a valuable example of non-random assembly rules from spatial
scale and environmental factors in grassland communities in the loess
hilly region. These results highlight the essential role of additional
constraints with spatial scales and environmental factors for
understanding the process of grassland community assembly.