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Positive relationships between species diversity and genetic diversity on a local scale at Mt. Wu Yi, China

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Abstract

Variations of biodiversity levels are not always independent in the ecological processes driving community assembly. Recently, SGDC (Species–genetic diversity correlation) has been used to infer community assembly rules. However, SGDC was not congruent, varying with different ecological process and scales. For figuring out the relationship between species diversity (SD) and genetic diversity (GD) on a local scale, the study tested relationship between α- and β- diversity within SD and GD, based on forest dynamics plot at Mt. Wuyi, China. The results shows that weak positive correlation between species richness and genetic diversity, due to mismatch effects of topography and resource competition on SD and GD. However, a significantly positive β-SGDC was found between species dissimilarity and genetic divergence. Meanwhile, results of multiple regression on matrices (MRM) show that geography distance has a slight effect on community assembly suggesting that influence of disperse on the community assembly. The variation partitioning further clarified that the neutral process had an important impact on the community construction at Mt. Wuyi. In conclusion, both α- and β- SGDC informed that we could infer from one biodiversity level to another, and link SD and GD through ecological process. From the view of conservation planning, overemphasis on the complementarity of one level of diversity can be detrimental to another. We need to pay more attention to natural ecological processes to protect both biodiversity levels in parallel.

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Data Availability

Data analysed in this study is publicly available at Figshare https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/SGDC_WY/20444919.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Lu Wang, MingYue Zang, MingYue Zhang, WeiLun Zhou, and Yi Kong, from the College of Biology and the Environment, Nan**g Forestry University, who participated in the construction of the Mount Wuyi forest dynamics plot.

Funding

This work was supported by the Special Foundation for National Science and Technology Basic Resources Investigation of China (2019FY202300). This work was also supported by Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX22_1042).

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  1. Lei **e and YueYao Feng contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and the Environment, Key Laboratory of State Forestry and Grassland Administration on Subtropical Forest Biodiversity Conservation, Nan**g Forestry University, Nan**g, 210037, China

    Lei **e, YueYao Feng, Rong Zhao, Ting Lv, NingJie Wang, Yao Li & YanMing Fang

  2. Research Center for Biodiversity Conservation and Biosafety, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory on Biosafety, Nan**g Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, State Environmental Protection Scientific Observation and Research Station for Ecological Environment of Wuyi Mountains, Biodiversity Comprehensive Observation Station for Wuyi Mountains, Nan**g, 210042, China

    **ao Zheng, ShuiFei Chen & Hui Ding

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  1. Lei **e
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Contributions

Lei **e: idea of paper (equal), data analysis (lead), and text writing (lead); YueYao Feng: idea of paper (equal), data collection (lead) and text writing (lead); Rong Zhao, Ting Lv, NingJie Wang, Yao Li, **ao Zheng and ShuiFei Chen: Resources (equal) and data collection (equal); Hui Ding writing–review and editing (supporting); YanMing Fang: Resources (equal); supervision (lead); validation (equal); writing–review and editing (support). All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to YanMing Fang.

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**e, L., Feng, Y., Zhao, R. et al. Positive relationships between species diversity and genetic diversity on a local scale at Mt. Wu Yi, China. Biodivers Conserv 32, 4295–4311 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02695-8

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