Plant Community Succession on Ant-hills of a Sub-alpine Meadow in Northwestern Sichuan, China: Species Composition and Diversity

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1143.2011.10186

Abstract

Abstract:

Ants may increase habitat heterogeneity by means of building ant-hills, thereby changing community species composition and ecosystem structure and functioning. We investigated plant height, coverage and abundance for each species and calculated species richness and diversity for ant-hills of Camponotus herculeanus differing in size (309.45cm2, 948.45cm2, 2124.90cm2 for the small, intermediate and large ant-hills, respectively). The dominant species was subsequently identified for the three size-classes of ant-hills and the mechanism underlying anthill community succession was derived. Our results showed that diurnal temperature fluctuation was greater in ant-hills than the surrounding flat soil, where the temperature of the ant-hills was higher in daytime but lower at night relative to the counterpart. The soil moisture was lower in center than in edge of ant-hills whose moisture was lower than the flat soil. Plant species diversity and richness were not significantly different among the three classes of ant-hills while the dominant species conspicuously changed. The importance value of the most dominant species, Kobresia uncinoides, increased significantly with increasing ant-hill size; the subdominant species was Galium aparine, Festuca ovina, Elymus nutans for the small, intermediate and large ant-hills, respectively. The dominance of grasses was significantly higher, but that of forbs was lower on ant-hills than in surrounding communities. The ant-hills were dominated by species from Cyperaceae and Gramineae while Compositae and Ranunculaceae dominated the surrounding communities. In addition, we discussed the possible mechanisms driving ant-hill community succession and the potential significance of ant-hills to the whole community composition and dynamics in the alpine meadow.

Key words: Ant-hill, Community succession, Species diversity, Species composition, Dominance, , Plant functional groups, Alpine meadow

摘要：

蚂蚁通过构建蚁丘，提高了群落生境异质性，影响群落物种组成，甚至生态系统结构和功能。我们在川西北典型高寒草甸调查了平地(非蚁丘，即距离蚁丘4~5m的草地)和不同大小广布弓背蚁(Camponotus herculeanus)蚁丘(小蚁丘、中蚁丘和大蚁丘3种，平均面积大小分别为309.45cm2、948.45cm2、2124.90cm2)上的植物种类组成、物种多样性，以及每个物种的高度，盖度和多度，在此基础上分析了蚁丘植物群落演替进程中的优势种变迁及其机制。调查发现，与平地相比，天气晴朗条件下蚁丘的土壤温度在白天较高，而在夜晚较低，日变化的波动性较大；蚁丘中心的相对湿度低于边缘，更低于平地。群落结构分析表明，不同大小蚁丘之间植物物种丰富度和多样性差异不显著，但是优势种变化明显。随蚁丘增大，钩状嵩草(Kobresia uncinoides)的群落地位(重要值)逐渐上升，小、中、大蚁丘上的次优种分别为拉拉藤(Galium aparine)、羊茅(Festuca ovina)、垂穗披碱草(Elymus nutans)。蚁丘上禾草类优势度显著高于平地，而杂草类优势度则显著低于平地。平地上菊科(Compositae)和毛茛科(Ranunculaceae)植物占优势，蚁丘上莎草科(Cyperaceae)和禾本科(Gramineae)植物占优势。文中还讨论了蚁丘植物群落演替的可能机制，以及蚁丘对整个草甸群落组成和动态的潜在意义。

关键词: 蚁丘, 群落演替, 物种多样性, 物种组成, 优势度, 植物功能群, 高寒草甸

CLC Number:

Q 948

MENG Feng-Qun-, GAO Xian-MIng-, SUN Shu-Cun. Plant Community Succession on Ant-hills of a Sub-alpine Meadow in Northwestern Sichuan, China: Species Composition and Diversity[J]. Plant Diversity, 2011, 33(2): 191-199.

蒙凤群1, 高贤明2, 孙书存1. 川西北高寒草甸蚁丘植物群落演替：种类组成与物种多样性[J]. Plant Diversity, 2011, 33(2): 191-199.

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