Leading plant families in grasslands of Inner Asia along the aridity gradient
A. YU. KOROLYUK1, I. S. CHUPINA1, YUANYE LIANG2,3,4, A. A. ZVEREV1,5, E. G. ZIBZEEV1, E. K. SINKOVSKY1, N. A. DULEPOVA1, LIANLIAN FAN2,3,4, XUEXI MA2,3,4, YAOMING LI2,3,4
1Central Siberian Botanical Garden Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
2Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China
3University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
4Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China
5National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
Keywords: vegetation, species composition, leading families, aridity, Asia
Abstract
The distribution patterns of plant families along the aridity gradient with regard to their role in the floristic composition and structure of grasslands in Inner Asia were studied. We determined the relationships between the aridity, diversity and activity of 35 leading plant families using Thornthwaite index on the basis of formalized analysis of 6256 relevés. The studied aridity gradient covers most territory of the Eurasia (88 %). Communities were analyzed from subalpine tall-grass meadows in the hyper humid areas of the Altai-Sayan mountains to the deserts of Central Asia. Different results had been obtained when comparing family-species spectra with different levels of aridity considering species composition and importance values (activity). The correlations between the aridity index and 35 families in 16 synoptic species indicated that the ten most rich families Asteraceae, Chenopodiaceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae showed strong positive relationship with aridity index, the family Brassicaceae showed a moderately positive relationship with aridity index, the family Ranunculaceae showed a strong negative relationship with aridity index, and Apiaceae, Caryophyllaceae and Rosaceae had a moderately negative relationship with aridity index. The correlation analysis of the importance values of the 35 families with the aridity index showed that Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae were not associated with the aridity gradient, suggesting their significant ecological and phytocoenotic heterogeneity. Among other top families Chenopodiaceae and Brassicaceae had strong positive relationships with aridity - Caryophyllaceae, Lamiaceae and Ranunculaceae had strong negative relationship with aridity and moderately negative relation - Apiaceae and Rosaceae. The use of species constancy and abundance in taxonomic spectra analysis can take into account the phytocoenotic importance of plants. This approach can be used to search for indicators of climatic processes, including those related to aridification of Inner Asia.
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