Intensive land-use drives regional-scale homogenization of plant communities

Intensive anthropogenic land-use causes habitat loss and landscape homogenization, which leads to the decrease of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation. Therefore, it is important to study the influence of landscape heterogeneity on biodiversity. In this study, vegetation surveys conducted at 53 sites in the Tabu River basin, located at the agro-pastoral ecotone of Inner Mongolia of China, revealed 146 species. Species diversity was evaluated at three scales: species richness within patches (alpha diversity), between patches (beta diversity) and at the landscape scale (gamma diversity). We analyzed landscape heterogeneity (LH_total) and its driving factors including environmental variables (LHDF_env-var, such as precipitation and altitude), environmental heterogeneity (LHDF_env-het) and human activities (LHDF_hum). We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the response of species richness to landscape heterogeneity at three scales and determined the relative contribution of driving factors in explaining species diversity at these scales. The results of the study are summarized as follows: 1) Alpha diversity was the dominant component of gamma diversity in the Tabu River basin in Inner Mongolia. 2) There is no significant correlation (P = 0.512) between alpha diversity and LH_total; with the increase of LH_total beta and gamma diversities showed hump-shaped relationships. 3) LHDF_env-het was the primary factor in maintaining alpha diversity, with heterogeneity of mean annual precipitation (MAP), temperature (MAT) and altitude (ALT) acting as three largest contributors. LHDF_hum primarily contributed to the maintenance of beta diversity. 4) LHDF_hum was the primary contributor to gamma diversity, and human activity exceeded threshold values for positive effects. Based on our findings we suggest liming agricultural use along the river to prevent reductions in species diversity.