Community Assembly of Forest Vegetation along Compound Habitat Gradients across Different Climatic Regions in China

Community assembly research has mostly focused on areas with single vegetation types; however, the abiotic and biotic factors affecting community act across regions. Integrating into “compound” habitats gained attention as an emerging strategy to analyze spatial temporal patterns of biodiversity. We used a compound habitat approach explore relative roles filtering, competition, stochastic processes in forest four climatic zones (tropical, subtropical, temperate, cold temperate forests). Specifically, we combined ecological gradients by principal component analysis (PCA), which assess geographic phylogenetic distribution multiple woody plant functional traits. found that diversity shifted from clustered overdispersed along first gradient (PC1) climate zones. This finding indicates competitive exclusion strongly affected tropical subtropical forests, while filtering played key role forests; these mechanisms may both exist interact forests. also competition regions China. Our results elucidate underlying driving geographical differentiation zones, bolster empirical evidence for conservation biodiversity Further is needed whether this paper are prevalent different locations