Elevational filtering reshapes mountain understory communities through diversity decline, functional shifts, and species replacement

Elevation across 2,202–3,696 m a.s.l. reshapes mountain herbaceous understory communities, with Sorensen β-diversity driven by species turnover (97.95%) rather than nestedness.

• Why it matters: Elevational filtering is known to constrain which species persist, but it remains unclear how it simultaneously alters community differentiation, local diversity, functional strategies, and the balance between turnover and nestedness.
• What they did: Across 27 sites, the study analyzed 107 herbaceous species in three elevational zones, integrating taxonomic, functional, and β-diversity patterns to test whether differentiation reflects turnover or nestedness.
• The result: As elevation increases, communities become more distinct and locally less diverse, functional composition shifts toward perennial and chamaephytic groups, and β-diversity is explained mainly by species replacement (97.95%).

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