Habitat quality drives the species-area relationship of plants and soil microbes in an ocean archipelago
Data files
Jul 12, 2024 version files 50.02 KB
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alpha-bf.csv
2.36 KB
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alpha-plant.csv
436 B
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beta-bf.csv
38.92 KB
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beta-plant.csv
2.18 KB
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README.md
3.79 KB
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SEM.csv
2.33 KB
Abstract
While the positive species-area relationship on islands is frequently observed, the mechanisms underlying this pattern remain poorly studied. By analyzing insular community diversity across spatial scales and the soil properties within the islands, we were able to explore potential mechanisms leading to the island species-area relationship of plants, as well as associated soil bacteria and fungi, from a tropical archipelago. We found that both plant and soil microbial communities showed similar positive species-area relationships across scales and the greater taxonomic diversity on larger islands was mainly driven by the higher richness within samples. These patterns arose primarily due to shifting habitat quality with island area, rather than spatial processes generally attributed to species-area relationships. Specifically, for plants, changes in soil total phosphorus content with island area were most explanatory, while changes in soil pH appeared to play the most important role in shaping soil bacteria and fungi patterns. By contrast, we found little evidence for the role of spatial processes (i.e., dispersal limitation or soil heterogeneity) within the island. Overall, this study highlights the importance of dissecting potential mechanisms underlying multi-trophic community dynamics to explain patterns of biodiversity and its variation on islands.
ReadMe for 'Habitat quality drives the species-area relationship of plants and microbes in an ocean archipelago'.
Our dataset was collected from the Paracel archipelago (i.e., Xisha islands, 15°46′ N to 17°08′ N and 111°11′ E to 112°54′ E) in the South China Sea. The Paracel archipelago comprises many small oceanic islands primarily made from coral and sand (Ye et al., 1985; Gong et al., 1996). The vegetation on these islands consists mainly of shrubs and herbs, with dominant plant species including Scaevola taccada, Guettarda speciosa, Tournefortia argentea and Morinda citrifolia.
Although there are ~30 islands in the Paracel archipelago, many of them are too small or lack vegetation to meet the requirements for field surveys. Thus, in April 2023, ten representative islands were selected with an area ranging from 2 to 40ha that were minimally disturbed by human activities. On each island, woody plants, together with soil bacteria and fungi, were sampled simultaneously.
This readme file describes the data files accompanying the above manuscript. If you have any questions, please contact ykcheng@hainanu.edu.cn
The following files are included:
1) SEM.csv（all variables were log-transformed）
This data file contains all variables to disentangle the causal pathways through which island spatial and environmental factors influence alpha, beta, and gamma diversity of plant, soil bacteria and fungi.
area: the size of each island (ha)
soil: average soil heterogeneity among samples within each island
spatial: average spatial distance among samples within each island
bg: bacteria gamma diversity of each island
pg: plant gamma diversity of each island
fg: fungi gamma diversity of each island
area: island area
fa:average fungi alpha diversity within each island
pa: average plant alpha diversity within each island
ba: average bacteria alpga diversity within each island
ph: average soil pH within each island
tsc: average soil salinity within each island
tn: average soil total nitrogen content within each island
tp: average soil total phosphorus content within each island
soc: average soil organic carbon within each island
tk: average soil total potassium within each island
bb: bacteria beta diversity (the average bray-curtis dissimilarity of bacteria community among samples within each island)
fb: fungi beta diversity (the average bray-curtis dissimilarity of fungi community among samples within each island)
pb: plant beta diversity (the average bray-curtis dissimilarity of plant community among samples within each island)
2) alpha-plant.csv
area: the size of each island (ha)
plant_richness: the sample-level taxonomic richness of plant within each island
site: sample site number
3) alpha-bf.csv
area: the size of each island (ha)
bac_richness: the sample-level taxonomic richness of bacteria within each island
fungi_richness: the sample-level taxonomic richness of fungi within each island
Plot: sample plot number
4) beta-plant.csv
area: the size of each island (ha)
plant_bray: the bray-curtis dissimilarity of plant among samples within each island
plant_jaccard: the jaccard dissimilarity of plant among samples within each island
Site: sample site name
5) beta-bf.csv
area: the size of each island (ha)
bac_bray: the bray-curtis dissimilarity of bacteria among samples within each island
bac_jaccard: the jaccard dissimilarity of bacteria among samples within each island
fungi_bray: the bray-curtis dissimilarity of fungi among samples within each island
fungi_jaccard: the jaccard dissimilarity of fungi among samples within each island
Site: sample site name
These data files were used to test the effect of island area on plant and soil microbe diversities. (2-5)
- Zhou, Shurong; Qin, Hao; Liao, Renfu; Cheng, Yikang (2024), Habitat quality drives the species–area relationship of plants and soil microbes in an ocean archipelago, Oikos, Journal-article, https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.10660