Increasing plant species diversity and extreme species turnover accompany declining soil fertility along a long-term chronosequence in a biodiversity hotspot

摘要

1. Long-term soil chronosequences provide natural soil fertility gradients that can be used to explore linkages between soils and plant community composition and diversity. Well-studied forested soil chronosequences have revealed that local (a) plant diversity increases with greater soil age and declining fertility, but corresponding changes in species turnover and beta (b) diversity have not been explored, particularly in extremely species-rich regions.