Hierarchical effects of environmental filtering and spatial aggregation
on β-diversity in forest communities in northeastern China
Abstract
Species composition of communities are firstly affected by environmental
filtering where species are progressively selected from the available
species pool, and then by spatial aggregation which result in specific
spatial organizations. However, the hierarchical effects of these
processes across spatial scales are poorly understood. Using dataset of
forest plots in northeastern China, we quantified the effects of
environmental filtering at region-zone, zone-area, area-district,
district-plot scales, and spatial aggregation at within-plot scale on
β-diversity along latitudes. We showed that the patterns of β-diversity
was mainly dominated by the processes at the region-zone, district-plot,
and within-plot scales.We also showed that environmental filtering at
the broader scales had stronger effects at higher latitudes, while at
the finer scales only at lower latitudes. The effects of spatial
aggregation were more prominent at lower latitudes. We highlight that
the scale-dependency of the ecological processes needs to be fully
considered in future studies.