The Species Richness of Vascular Plants and Amphibia in Major Plant Communities in Temperate to Tropical Australia: Relationship with Annual Biomass Production

Figure 4

(a) The relationship between species richness (𝑁, number of species per hectare) of overstorey species in major plant communities—growing on soils of medium nutrient status—with Annual Shoot Growth (biomass per hectare) in tropical, subtropical and temperate eastern Australia (after [14, 15]). Overstorey 𝑁=1.95∗10^0.157ASG (𝑛=15; 𝑟²=0.98). (b) The relationship between species richness (𝑁, number of species per hectare) of overstorey and understorey species in major plant communities— growing on nutrient-rich to nutrient-poor soils—with Annual Shoot Growth (ASG, biomass per hectare) in tropical and temperate Australia (Table 1). Temperate overstorey 𝑁 = 0.99 ASG + 0.35 (𝑛=20; 𝑟²=0.94). Temperate understorey 𝑁 = 1.93 ASG + 36.5 (𝑛=20; 𝑟²=0.93). Tropical overstorey 𝑁 = 3.33 ASG −2.13 (𝑛=13; 𝑟²=0.98). Tropical understorey 𝑁 = 4.30 ASG + 3.61 (𝑛=13; 𝑟²=0.99).

(a)

(b)