Population succession and associated plant diversity change
In efforts to elucidate the succession processes of cushion-dominated
communities, we randomly selected 90 living and 109 trace individual
cushions of the PJ1 population, 98 and 94, respectively, of the PJ2
population, as well as 154 and 149, respectively, of the PJ3 population.
As the vegetation cover and number of individual cushion traces decrease
and the population density increases with increases in elevation, we
considered PJ1 as a ‘climax (relatively stable) community’, PJ2 as a
‘balanced community’ and PJ3 as a ‘primary community’. We counted and
recorded all beneficiary species associated with each selected
individual, and their abundance (number of individuals). The PJ4
population was ignored in this analysis because beneficiary cover in
individual cushions of this population was too low, i.e. , few
beneficiaries occupied the cushion surfaces, and no cushion trace was
detected. Thus, we could not assess the potential replacement of the
species in the PJ4 population.