J Plant Ecol ›› 2010, Vol. 3 ›› Issue (1): 1-7 .DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rtq002

• Research Articles •     Next Articles

Patterns of plant diversity at high altitudes on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Ayako Shimono1,2,*, Huakun Zhou3, Haihua Shen1, Mitsuru Hirota4, Toshiyuki Ohtsuka5 and Yanhong Tang1   

  1. 1 Environmental Biology Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan; 2 Present address: Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå 901-87, Sweden; 3 Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810001, Qinghai, China; 4 Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, Japan; 5 Institute for Basin Ecosystem Study, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagito, Gifu, Gifu 501-1193, Japan
  • Received:2009-09-12 Accepted:2010-01-28 Published:2010-02-19
  • Contact: Shimono, Ayako

Patterns of plant diversity at high altitudes on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Abstract: Aims To describe the biodiversity patterns of plants along an altitudinal gradient on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and to clarify the bias in plant specimen records at high altitude.
Methods We conducted a large-scale investigation of vegetation at a wide range of altitudes, focusing on a high-altitudinal range (3?200–5?200 m) at different locations on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We then compared the altitudinal distribution of plant species obtained from our field investigation with that in plant specimen records from published sources and an online database.
Important findings Our data provide evidence that altitude plays a large role in regulating species composition on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We could not, however, detect a clear relationship between altitude and species richness, although a weak monotonically increasing trend of richness was detected with increasing altitude. According to specimen records, most species have been sampled at a wide range of altitudes, and the average range of 145 species is>2?000 m. Despite this wide range, more than half of the species we observed were at higher altitudes than the specimen records indicate. High-altitude areas have probably been so poorly sampled that only a small fraction of the resident species has been recorded. This study clearly shows the regional bias of specimen records in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Key words: altitudinal gradient, alpine plant, species composition, species richness, specimen bias

摘要:
Aims To describe the biodiversity patterns of plants along an altitudinal gradient on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and to clarify the bias in plant specimen records at high altitude.
Methods We conducted a large-scale investigation of vegetation at a wide range of altitudes, focusing on a high-altitudinal range (3?200–5?200 m) at different locations on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We then compared the altitudinal distribution of plant species obtained from our field investigation with that in plant specimen records from published sources and an online database.
Important findings Our data provide evidence that altitude plays a large role in regulating species composition on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We could not, however, detect a clear relationship between altitude and species richness, although a weak monotonically increasing trend of richness was detected with increasing altitude. According to specimen records, most species have been sampled at a wide range of altitudes, and the average range of 145 species is>2?000 m. Despite this wide range, more than half of the species we observed were at higher altitudes than the specimen records indicate. High-altitude areas have probably been so poorly sampled that only a small fraction of the resident species has been recorded. This study clearly shows the regional bias of specimen records in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.