RESEARCH ARTICLE Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows Manhou XuID*, Shixiong Zhang, Jing Wen, Xiaoyan Yang Institute of Geographical Science, Taiyuan Normal University, Jinzhong, China a1111111111 *
[email protected] a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract Researchers frequently discuss spatial distribution patterns of species diversity and bio- mass together with their correlations along geographical gradients. Typical subalpine mead- ows occur widely on the east of the Loess Plateau, China; here, we selected nine mountains OPEN ACCESS belonging to four mountain systems from north to south on the east of the plateau. We ana- Citation: Xu M, Zhang S, Wen J, Yang X (2019) lyzed five latitudinal and longitudinal gradients together with six elevational gradients to Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and study the spatial distribution patterns of species diversity (including α, β, and γ diversity) and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows. biomass plus with their relationships at various scales. Results showed that (1) for diversity, PLoS ONE 14(2): e0211560. https://doi.org/ α-Diversity manifested unimodal variation patterns in horizontal spaces, peaking at high lati- 10.1371/journal.pone.0211560 tude and low longitude. However, α-diversity was not sensitive to elevation in vertical spaces Editor: FrancËois Rigal, CNRS - Universite de Pau et and tended to decrease with increasing elevation. With increased latitude, longitude, and des Pays de l'Adour - E2S UPPA, FRANCE elevation, β-Diversity diminished; meanwhile, the rate of species turnover decreased and Received: September 4, 2018 the similarity of community composition enlarged.