Plant community assemblages can be created concurrently by random and deterministic mechanisms. However, it is unknown how they affect the phylogeny and functional structure of herbaceous plants in alpine meadows, which makes it difficult to comprehend how species coexist and how variety is maintained in herbaceous communities. On the northeaster Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China, we created a permanent research sample plot of 3.76 105 m2 in alpine meadows, looked into the flora, evaluated nine functional variables, examined interand intraspecific variation, and displayed phylogenetic signals. The outcomes demonstrate that the habitat filtering along an altitude gradient range from competitive exclusion to the phylogenetic structure based on DNA barcode sequences. With altitude, the interspecific functional structure changed, revealing various plant survival strategies. Contrarily, environmental screening procedures were associated with intraspecific trait variation. Increasing altitude enhances environmental filtration, which benefits species with conservative selection strategies, indicating that they are more influenced by environmental variety.
KeywordsSpecies coexistence; DNA barcode sequence; Inter- and intraspecific functional traits; Phylogeny; Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
Published Date: 2023-02-28; Received Date: 2023-02-02
