Plant community data along elevational gradients in China’s 17 mountains

Mountains in China are crucial for biodiversity conservation due to unique topography and climate, providing essential habitats and refugia for many plant species. Standardized open datasets along elevational gradients across multiple mountains remain limited. Here we used standardized field protocols to collect plant diversity data of 370 permanent sampling plots along elevations in 17 mountains. Species identity and abundance of all woody plants with ≥ 1 cm diameter at breast height were recorded. We calculated species-level basal area, abundance, and relative importance value for all plants, and separately for two vegetation layers. The dataset spans 46° longitude, 24° latitude, ranges from 166 to 3,835 m a.s.l., and includes 1,493 species from 121 families and 449 genera. It covers nearly all major ecosystems from tropical rainforests to tundra, providing baseline data for studying plant diversity changes along elevations and latitudes. This dataset enables direct comparisons across mountains, helping evaluate impacts of climate and land-use changes on species range shifts and ecosystem transitions, and inform conservation strategies for mountain ecosystems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Scientific Data
Published
2025-12-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-06414-6
Primary Topic
Species Distribution and Climate Change
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Plant community data along elevational gradients in China’s 17 mountains

Yi Ding, Ya‐Huang Luo, Zhanqing Hao, Zhongsheng He et al.
Scientific Data
Species Distribution and Climate Change
article

Plant community data along elevational gradients in China’s 17 mountains

Yi Ding, Ya‐Huang Luo, Zhanqing Hao, Zhongsheng He, Zhonghua Zhang, Yuxin Chen, Zhaochen Zhang, Buhang Li, Shihong Jia, Fei Lin, Dingliang Xing, Yong Shen, Zuoqiang Yuan, Houjuan Song, Gang Hu, Kun Song, Jie Liu, Tian Zhongping, Yinghua Luo, S. Fang, Yongchuan Yang, Qiang Zhang, Lan Liu, Jian Zhang, Xiaoran Wang, Yun Chen, Xiuqing Yang, Zhiliang Yuan, Qingpei Yang
article en

Abstract

Mountains in China are crucial for biodiversity conservation due to unique topography and climate, providing essential habitats and refugia for many plant species. Standardized open datasets along elevational gradients across multiple mountains remain limited. Here we used standardized field protocols to collect plant diversity data of 370 permanent sampling plots along elevations in 17 mountains. Species identity and abundance of all woody plants with ≥ 1 cm diameter at breast height were recorded. We calculated species-level basal area, abundance, and relative importance value for all plants, and separately for two vegetation layers. The dataset spans 46° longitude, 24° latitude, ranges from 166 to 3,835 m a.s.l., and includes 1,493 species from 121 families and 449 genera. It covers nearly all major ecosystems from tropical rainforests to tundra, providing baseline data for studying plant diversity changes along elevations and latitudes. This dataset enables direct comparisons across mountains, helping evaluate impacts of climate and land-use changes on species range shifts and ecosystem transitions, and inform conservation strategies for mountain ecosystems.

Scientific DataVol. 13(1)
Shanxi Agricultural University (CN), Xinjiang Normal University (CN), Kunming Institute of Botany (CN), Guangxi University (CN), Sun Yat-sen University (CN), Chongqing University (CN), Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN), Xiamen University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Hainan University (CN), Guangdong Academy of Sciences (CN), Institute of Applied Ecology (CN), Department of Ecology and Environment of Hainan Province (CN), Lushan Botanical Garden (CN), Chinese Academy of Forestry (CN), Nanning Normal University (CN), Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection (CN), Institute of Zoology (CN), Henan Agricultural University (CN), Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (CN), East China Normal University (CN), Jiangxi Agricultural University (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 78%
Species Distribution and Climate Change
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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