Temporal heterogeneity has no effect on the direction of succession in abandoned croplands in a semiarid area of northwest China
Bibliographic Data
Space for time substitution has been widely used in the study of succession in abandoned croplands worldwide but it is often accompanied by time heterogeneity. However, the effect of temporal heterogeneity on succession dynamics over decades is not well understood. Here, we studied croplands with the same history that were abandoned in 1998, 1999, and 2000 in northwest China (temporal heterogeneity) and continuously monitored for vegetation characteristics for 10 years. Aboveground biomass, taxonomic, and functional diversity were compared in the three cropland groups over time. Our results showed that the direction of succession in the three cropland groups was similar, from a community with single dominant species with higher aboveground biomass to a community with multiple dominant species with lower aboveground biomass. Taxonomic and functional diversity increased rapidly in the first 5–6 years, followed by slow increase, decrease, or stabilization. In years 1–5, aboveground biomass, taxonomic, and functional diversity were affected by rainfall, time of abandonment, time since abandonment, or their interactions. However, in years 6–10, biomass was only affected by rainfall, and functional evenness was affected by rainfall and time since abandonment; there was no time of abandonment effect. We conclude that temporal heterogeneity can initially affect the succession process but has no effect on the direction of community succession in the longer term. Our findings provide evidence for using space for time substitution with temporal heterogeneity to study succession in abandoned croplands in semiarid areas
Biology · Ecological succession · Secondary succession · Spatial heterogeneity · Species diversity · Species evenness · Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies · Environmental Science · Plant and animal studies · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation · Ecology
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| Unique citing works | 3 |
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| Citation span | 2022 - 2024 (3) |
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