Unraveling community assembly in temperate desert ecosystems: Insights from multi‐seasonal surveys along the expressway

Abstract

AbstractFor temperate desert ecosystems, understanding the maintenance mechanisms of biodiversity has become a central concern of policymakers, practitioners, and academicians, especially in the context of human disturbances. However, most of the past desert research is based on a single survey and single functional traits or phylogeny, and may lead to incomplete estimates of community assembly. To assess climate factors, soil factors, and human interference in the processes of dispersal assembly, filtering, and limiting similarity in community assembly, we selected 50 sites along the Beijing‐Xinjiang Expressway and conducted plant surveys at sites 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 km away from the expressway twice, one in spring and one in autumn, and collected 31 functional traits and phylogenetic information of 74 species. We found that incomplete detection can lead to bias in biodiversity estimation due to seasonal surveys. Road disturbance at different distances had no significant effect on species composition and community assembly processes. The trade‐off between dispersal limitation and environmental filtering is the process of maintaining desert plant diversity. Precipitation directly determined the dispersal limitation and environmental filtering. Soil pH mediated the effect of temperature on biotic interaction in the dimension of phylogeny, while soil pH and organic carbon acted as intermediate factors affecting biotic interaction in functional traits. Our findings suggest that climate change, notably precipitation, has a more pronounced impact on desert plant communities than human disturbances. A multifaceted approach considering functional traits and phylogeny across seasons is essential for understanding species coexistence in desert ecosystems.