Relative roles of the replacement and richness difference components of beta diversity following the ecological restoration of a mountain meadow, north China

Replacement and richness difference are two main components in generating beta diversity patterns. This study we explored the effects of ecological restoration on the relative roles of replacement (βrepl) and richness difference (βrich) components in terms of taxon (Tβtotal), phylogenetic (Pβtotal), and functional (Fβtotal) beta diversity in the Lishan mountain meadow, north China. The results reflected the relatively high values of beta diversity in the severely disturbed areas. Following restoration, the compositions of disturbed areas were closer to that of non-disturbed areas than that pre-restoration. In addition, we found the changes in Tβtotal were similar to those of Pβtotal and Fβtotal. However, when βtotal was partitioned into βrepl and βrich components, the processes generating the beta diversity patterns appeared to be different in the different disturbance areas. The patterns of taxon and phylogenetic beta diversity resulted equally from the replacement and richness difference components, whereas the functional richness difference was higher than the functional replacement for functional beta diversity in the severely disturbed subarea. When the community was subjected to slight anthropogenic activity, only the replacement component had an important role in generating beta diversity patterns. With an increase in anthropogenic activity, both replacement and richness difference components played the important role. The relative roles of replacement and richness difference highlighted the anthropogenic effects on the community composition pre- and post-restoration. Disintegrating the relative roles of these two components was beneficial to understand the status of vegetation restoration and for taking appropriate measures in the different stages of restoration.