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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.

Sec. Functional Plant Ecology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1655071

This article is part of the Research TopicPlants in Karst Degraded Habitats: Diversity, Evolution, and Ecological FunctionsView all articles

Environmental filtering and dispersal limitation jointly shape the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity in a subtropical karst forest of China

Provisionally accepted
Qingzhi  LongQingzhi Long1Liang  SuLiang Su1Zhili  ZhanZhili Zhan1Wanxia  PengWanxia Peng1Hao  ZhangHao Zhang1Zhaoxia  ZengZhaoxia Zeng1Fuping  ZengFuping Zeng1Kelin  WangKelin Wang1Weining  TanWeining Tan2Youwang  MoYouwang Mo2Xichao  DengXichao Deng3Yanjun  XieYanjun Xie3Hu  DuHu Du1*
  • 1Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changsha, China
  • 2Management Center for Guangxi Mulun National Nature Reserve, Huanjiang, China
  • 3Hechi University, Hechi, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Community assembly involves species forming communities through interactions and environmental adaptation, with traits and phylogeny playing key roles.Analyzing these factors is crucial for understanding community assembly and improving ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation, especially in karst ecosystems, where research is limited. Here, we evaluated six metrics of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity in a subtropical climax forest, and then derived the relative contribution of environmental and spatial conditions on the diversity metrics. The results indicated that, except for the mean pairwise distance (MPD) index, all other indices exhibited a higher spatial distribution pattern on slopes compared to depressions. The MPD index, however, displayed a more homogeneous pattern, with no significant differences observed across terrains. Our findings suggest that topography has a stronger and more consistent influence on species, functional, and phylogenetic diversity than soil factors. Among these, phylogenetic diversity showed the most pronounced response to topographic variation (especially elevation, slope, and terrain wetness index), indicating that evolutionary lineage distribution is more sensitive to terrain changes than functional or species diversity.In addition, species diversity was most affected by dispersal limitation among the three types of diversity, suggesting that significant spatial variation in community composition is largely constrained by the dispersal ability of species. In contrast, phylogenetic diversity was most affected by environmental filtering, highlighting the strong selective effect of environmental conditions on community phylogeny.Functional diversity, on the other hand, showed a smaller degree of response to both filtering and dispersal, with dispersal limitation having a higher impact than environmental filtering. This study reveals the spatial pattern of karst plant diversity in southwest China and its influencing factors, as well as the mechanism of community construction, providing a theoretical foundation and scientific basis for biodiversity conservation and vegetation restoration in karst areas.

Keywords: :Multidimensional diversity, Abiotic filtering, habitat heterogeneity, functional trait, Karst ecosystem

Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Long, Su, Zhan, Peng, Zhang, Zeng, Zeng, Wang, Tan, Mo, Deng, Xie and Du. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Hu Du, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changsha, China

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