Environmental filtering and niche differentiation are often invoked to explain species coexistence at local scales. The ironstone campo rupestre of Brazil provides a biodiverse natural experiment in which edaphic gradients represent filters to test the hypothesis that plant community functional composition, despite converging on extreme stress tolerance, exhibits a co-structure with environmental parameters. At the Serra do Rola-Moça State Park, soil physico-chemical parameters were characterized alongside community-weighted mean plant functional traits and Grime’s competitor, stress-tolerator and ruderal strategies for species at each sampling site. In general, species exhibited a high degree of stress tolerance (between 72.6% and 100%), while ruderalism was 0% for all species. Soil nutrients related to plant metabolism (e.g. P, Ca, Mg) were associated with the stress-tolerant strategy and with traits involved in the leaf economics and size spectra. Despite a major edaphic filter selecting stress tolerance, fine-scale microhabitat variability represented by soil parameters related to fertility (i.e. P, Ca, Mg) and water retention capacity (i.e. clay content) was associated with subtle variation in ecological strategies and functional traits of species in the ironstone campo rupestre.
Global climatic changes can have drastic impacts on plant species including severe consequences for the agricultural species productivity. Many of these species present important mutualisms with endophytic fungi that positively influence their performance. The present study evaluated whether the increases in CO<sub>2</sub> and temperature predicted for the year 2100 may cause changes in foliar carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations in soybean (<i>Glycine max</i>) and, consequently, the interactions with its endophytic fungi. The effects of elevated CO<sub>2</sub> and temperature were evaluated in four treatments in open-top chambers: (1) Control; (2) Increased Temperature; (3) Increased CO<sub>2</sub>; (4) Increased CO<sub>2</sub> and Temperature. Increased atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> resulted in decreased foliar nitrogen concentration, while increased temperature increased it. A total of 16 taxa of endophytic fungi were identified based on sequencing <i><i>ITS</i></i> (Internal Transcribed Spacer) regions of rRNA subunits. Increased atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> and temperature were observed to potentially modify the endophytic mycobiota of soybean plants. Results suggest the fungi species substitution as a consequence of changes in foliar nitrogen concentration and C:N ratio. Predicted climatic changes shall affect the plant and endophytes relationships, which will in turn affect the performance and resistance of soybean, one of the most important crops in the world.
The native fl ora of the Brazilian rupestrian grassland (campos rupestres) is threatened by the spread of invasive grasses. In this study, we evaluated the effect of habitat on the functional traits and CSR ecological strategies of three invasive alien grasses occurring both in the ironstone (IRG) and quartzitic (QRG) rupestrian grassland habitats. Although in both habitats the invasive species predominantly showed a stress-tolerant strategy, they exhibited distinct degrees of stress-tolerance and slightly differences in functional traits values in the IRG compared to the QRG. Habitat type distinctly infl uenced invasive grasses functional traits and ecological strategies, revealing a species-specifi c pattern.
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