Dominant species play a leading role in shaping community stability in the northern Tibetan grasslands
Dominant species may strongly influence biotic conditions and interact with other species,and thus are important drivers of community dynamics and ecosystem functioning,particularly in the stressed environment of alpine grasslands.However,the effects of dominant species on the community stability of different ecosystems remain poorly understood.We examined the mechanisms underlying temporal stability(2014-2020 year)of aboveground productivity and community stability in four alpine grasslands(alpine meadow,alpine meadow steppe,alpine steppe and alpine desert steppe)of the northern Tibetan with different species composition and dominance.Our results showed that community stability was significantly higher in the alpine meadow than in the other three types of grasslands.This difference was mainly attributed to the higher compensatory effect and selection effect in the alpine meadows.Furthermore,dominant species strongly affected community stability by increasing dominant species stability and species asynchrony.However,species richness had little effect on community stability.Our findings demonstrate that dominant species,as foundation species,may play leading roles in shaping community stability in the alpine grasslands,highlighting the importance of conserving dominant species for stable ecosystem functioning in these fragile ecosystems under increasing environmental fluctuations.
community stabilityspecies richnessdominant speciescompensatory effectselection effect
Ge Hou、Peili Shi、Tiancai Zhou、Jian Sun、Ning Zong、Minghua Song、Xianzhou Zhang
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Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling,Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China
College of Resources and Environment,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190,China
State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System,Resources and Environment(TPESRE),Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China
群落稳定性 物种丰富度 优势种 补偿效应 选择效应
国家自然科学基金国家自然科学基金Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program(STEP)
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