Changes in taxonomic and phylogenetic dissimilarity among four subtropical forest communities during 30 years of restoration

Abstract Enhancement and conservation of biodiversity in recovering communities is one of the primary goals of forest ecology and restoration. To achieve a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying community assembly during restoration, we examined changes in taxonomic and phylogenetic dissimilarity in four types of subtropical forests, consisting of a Eucalyptus plantation (EE), an Acacia mangium plantation (AM), a mixed native species plantation (NS), and a mixed coniferous plantation (MC), over 30 years of restoration (1985–2015). Temporal variation in taxonomic and phylogenetic dissimilarity patterns were found to differ among the four plantation types, although their taxonomic diversity (species richness) and phylogenetic diversity (PD) increased monotonically as succession proceeded. Community dissimilarity decreased nonlinearly over the 30 years, and species composition within each plantation tended to stabilize at around 20 years. Overall, the phylogenetic structure of each plantation was random during the succession period. Taxonomic and phylogenetic rates did not vary markedly along the 30 years of restoration, but the taxonomic turnover rate of MC increased significantly while the phylogenetic turnover rate of NC augmented remarkably. These results indicated that deterministic processes played a more important role in determining the temporal dynamics of community composition while stochastic processes were more important for phylogenetic structure. Our findings further inform the development and design of appropriate restoration strategies, and provide insights into understanding the mechanisms regulating community assembly during the process of forest restoration.