The species richness and community composition of different growth forms and life forms of mosses are dominated by different factors along an elevational gradient of China

Understanding the elevational variation in species richness and community composition as well as their mechanisms is critical for biodiversity conservation. On Mt Jianfengling of China, we examined the elevational patterns of species richness and analyzed the important variables driving the variation of species richness and community composition using boosted regression trees for all mosses and two growth forms and three life forms of mosses, respectively. We assessed the contribution of elevation toward explaining the heterogeneity among sampling sites. Last, we compared the occurrence probability and proportional use of community type along the elevational gradient between two growth forms and three life forms of mosses. Although each taxonomic group displayed a negatively skewed (hump-shaped) diversity pattern and a high turnover rate of community composition along the elevational gradient, the leading drivers for the patterns of each group are different. The habitat complexity and the mid-domain effect (MDE) hypothesis were supported for the diversity patterns of acrocarpous mosses and turfs, whereas the habitat complexity hypothesis was supported for pleurocarpous mosses, mats, and wefts. Habitat composition dominated the community variation of acrocarpous mosses and turfs, whereas solar radiation was the leading factor for pleurocarpous mosses, mats and wefts. According to the additive diversity partitioning, α explained only 4.8–7.3% of the variation in species richness. For many low-lying sampling sites with sunny and dry conditions, extinction and dispersal limitation might be the primary processes producing low species richness pattern, which decreases the overall average diversity for each group. The variations of the occurrence probability and proportional use of community type along the elevational gradient in each group explain the contributions of elevation toward the heterogeneity among sampling sites for all mosses. With higher sensitivity to environmental changes, pleurocarpous mosses and wefts may have greater fluctuations in species richness when environmental conditions turn from unfavorable to optimal, therefore the elevation effect on explaining the heterogeneity among sampling sites was higher (18.9%) for pleurocarpous mosses as compared to 11.1% for acrocarpous mosses; and it ranged from a low of 11.0% in turfs to 19.9% in wefts. Although each group displayed similar biogeographic patterns along the elevational gradient, the underlying drivers are different. Therefore, the total measurements of species will veil the complex mechanisms for each growth form and life form. It is also suggested that conservation efforts should be paid to the top altitude for pleurocarpous mosses, mats and wefts, and the whole elevational range for acrocarpous mosses and turfs.