Effects of biotic/abiotic factors on the seedling regeneration of Dacrydium pectinatum formations in tropical montane forests on Hainan Island, China

作者：Haodong Liu, Haodong Liu, Qiao Chen, Yongfu Chen, Zhiyang Xu, Yunchuan Dai, Yang Liu, Yi Jiang, Xi Peng, Huayu Li, Juan Wang, Liu Hua, Liu Hua · 发表于：Global Ecology and Conservation · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01370 · 被引用次数：15 · 研究领域：Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Plant and animal studies、Fern and Epiphyte Biology

Exploring natural regeneration facilitates a better understanding of the mechanisms of community assembly and biodiversity formation. However, convincing data on tree regeneration in threatened tropical plant communities are lacking. Dacrydium pectinatum is a constructive and endangered species in tropical montane forests of Hainan Island. This study aims to identify the seedling regeneration patterns of D. pectinatum formation and their key drivers. A total of 204 seedling plots were investigated in the northwest (Bawangling, 90 plots), southwest (Jianfengling, 90 plots) and southeast (Diaoluoshan, 24 plots) of Hainan Island. We examined the variations in the seedling/adult composition, density and richness along local scales and elevation gradients and analyzed the relationships between biotic/abiotic variables and seedling regeneration. The seedling distribution pattern changed with environmental gradients, and the seedling density and richness decreased from low to high latitudes and from low to high elevations. Additionally, the adult density and total base area also showed consistent trends. At the community and species levels, the biotic neighborhood variables had a primary impact on the seedling density and richness. Multiple environmental factors (such as the canopy density, elevation, slope, soil organic matter, and soil total nitrogen) also showed significant correlations with the seedling density and richness. Our study supports conspecific negative density depend...