Driving factors of spatial turnover of plant species in Shennongjia

Aims: Shennongjia is one of the key habitats for numerous relic, rare, endemic, and type species, as well as many of the world's deciduous woody species in the Northern Hemisphere.Understanding plant compositional differences (beta-diversity) between local species assemblages is central in understanding the processes that maintain Shennongjia's species diversity.Yet, little is known about which factors driving the changes in Shennongjia's plant composition.Here, we aim to investigate that how the taxonomic composition of plant species shifts with environmental gradients, and to determine the key factors affecting on the current distribution of species by considering the factors of environment and human disturbance .Methods: In this paper, based on generalized dissimilarity modelling (GDM) and partial regression analysis, we explored the driving effects of geographical distance, climatic factors, and human disturbance (measured as distance to road and fragmentation) on plant beta-diversity in Shennongjia. Results:The results showed that the geographical distance, mean annual temperature (MAT), accumulated temperature •研究报告•