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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2019

• Title: Link distribution range size to community abundance in tree species
• Primary Author: Xiujuan Qiao (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
• Abstract:

  Early in 1859, Darwin proposed that species distribution range and abundance got a positive interspecific relationship, which have been proved in many groups, such as insects, birds and mammals. However, there was much fewer studies on plant community, and the small number of studies on trees showed there were nearly no or only marginal relationships between distribution range and abundance. In this study, we compared the abundance data to species distribution range data in China and USA to examine whether there were positive relationships between range size and abundance. We downloaded species abundance data in USA from Forest Inventory and Analysis National Program, and we used the data which were conducted in 2010; we downloaded the species distribution range data from USGS. The maps of the ranges of tree species were compiled by Elbert Little, in which we selected the species only distributed in American, or a tiny fraction in Canada or Mexico. Species abundance of endemic trees in China was from the extensive investigations on forest community from Ecology department, Peking University. The species distribution maps of China were from the Database of China’s Woody Plants. We found significant positive relationships between species abundance, occupancy and distribution range. And, we also found a significant positive correlation between the mean latitude of every species and latitude where maximum abundance happened, which supported “abundance-center” hypothesis.

• Research Category: Biodiversity Studies