Of niche differentiation, dispersal ability and historical legacies: what drives woody community assembly in recent Mediterranean forests?

Community assembly rules have been extensively studied, but its association with regional environmental variation and land use history remains largely unexplored. Land use history might be especially important in Mediterranean forests, considering their historical deforestation and recent afforestation. Using forest inventories and historical (1956) and recent (2000) land cover maps, we explored the following hypotheses: 1) woody species assembly is driven by environmental factors, but also by historical landscape attributes; 2) recent forests exhibit lower woody species richness than pre-existing due to the existence of colonization credits; 3) these credits are modulated by species’ life-forms and dispersal mechanisms. We examined the association of forest historical type (pre-existing versus recent) with total species richness and that of diverse life-forms and dispersal groups, also considering the effects of current environment and past landscape factors. When accounting for these ...群落构建（community assembly）规则已得到广泛研究，但其与区域环境变异及土地利用历史的关联尚未得到充分探索。考虑到地中海森林曾经历历史砍伐与近期造林的双重干扰，土地利用历史对其的影响或许尤为关键。本研究依托森林清查数据，以及1956年的历史土地覆盖图与2000年的最新土地覆盖图，对以下假说展开验证：1）木本植物群落构建既受环境因子驱动，亦受历史景观属性的影响；2）由于拓殖信用（colonization credits）的存在，新生森林的木本物种丰富度低于原有森林；3）拓殖信用受物种生活型与扩散机制的调控。本研究在考量当前环境与历史景观因子影响的基础上，探讨了森林历史类型（原有森林与新生森林）与总物种丰富度、不同生活型类群及扩散类群物种丰富度之间的关联。当考量上述因素时……