Soil resource heterogeneity promotes species richness only at a fine scale at the early restoration of karst abandoned farmland
Xuman Guo,
Jie Luo,
Weixue Luo,
Haohan Du,
Yijie Zhao,
Wenjing Tao,
Zongfeng Li,
Kiran Shehzadi,
Jianping Tao,
Jinchun Liu
Affiliations
Xuman Guo
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Jie Luo
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Weixue Luo
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China; Chongqing Jinfo Mountain Karst Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Haohan Du
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Yijie Zhao
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Wenjing Tao
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Zongfeng Li
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Kiran Shehzadi
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Jianping Tao
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China; Chongqing Jinfo Mountain Karst Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Jinchun Liu
Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Resources Research in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China; Chongqing Jinfo Mountain Karst Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China; Corresponding author
Summary: The relationship between heterogeneity and plant diversity remains unclear in low-resource karst. We made in situ observations at different spatial scales within a fixed plot on abandoned farmland that had been enclosed for 4 years. Species richness was spatially scale dependent, while species evenness remained consistently low across all scales. Species diversity was positively related to resource heterogeneity only at a fine scale (1 m × 1 m), mainly driven by an increase in the species richness of non-dominant groups. Resource heterogeneity reduced overall plant growth at a large scale. However, it reduced the growth of the dominant families (Asteraceae and Poaceae) at a fine scale, but promoted it at a large scale. Our results suggest that soil resource heterogeneity exerts a scale-dependent positive impact on species richness during the early restoration of abandoned farmland by low resource availability and highlight the importance of fine-scale ecological information in karst areas.
