CSR analysis of plant functional types in highly diverse tropical grasslands of harsh environments

Abstract

The classification of plant species according to the CSR ecological strategy scheme has been proposed as a common language that allows comparison among species, communities and floras.Although several studies on European continent have demonstrated a consistent association between CSR strategies and key ecosystem processes, studies of this type are still lacking in other ecoregions worldwide. For the first time the CSR strategy scheme is applied in a tropical plant community. In a Brazilian mountain grassland ecosystem characterized by both high biodiversity and environmental stress, we sampled various functional traits of 48 herbaceous species in stony and sandy grasslands, and evaluated the relationship between CSR strategies and functional traits with several environmental parameters. The extremely infertile soils in the two studied habitats may have acted as a major environmental filter leading to a clear predominance of the stress-tolerant strategy in both communities. However, fine-scale environmental differences between the two communities resulted in the filtering of distinct functional trait values. The sites with coarser soil texture, lower percentage of plant cover and (paradoxically) higher mineral nutrient concentrations favored plants with narrower leaves, higher stress tolerance, lower competitiveness, and higher sclerophylly (i.e., lower specific leaf area and higher leaf dry matter content). The comparison between the functional character of stony and sandy communities evidenced the influence of soil texture and water availability in the environmental filtering. This study highlighted the validity of the CSR classification outside the temperate region where it was originally developed and corroborated.

Ecology and evolution of plant diversity in the endangered campo rupestre: a neglected conservation priority

“…Symbols in panels (c) and (d) represent sites with 15 vegetation plots of 1×1 m 2 . Data for sandy and stony grasslands are modified from Negreiros et al (2014) and Le Stradic et al (2015a) Therefore, the main process favouring heterozygosity in campo rupestre species should be effective crosspollination by highly mobile vectors such as birds and large bees. Dioecy may also be an important trait maintaining genetic diversity among populations (Gomes et al 2004).…”

Short gradient, but distinct plant strategies: The CSR scheme applied to subtropical forests

“…This can be seen over global (across climate zones and biomes, e.g. Pierce et al., 2017), regional (across vegetation formations) and local ranges (along gradients in salinity, nutrient availability, or physical soil features; e.g., Negreiros, Le Stradic, Fernandes, & Rennó, 2014). Evaluating ecological strategies can also be useful to explain ecological processes, such as productivity, as increases in net primary productivity are found to be associated with environments composed of S‐ and R‐ (at the lower end) to C‐adapted species (at the upper end; Jenkins & Pierce, 2017).…”

No recovery of campo rupestre grasslands after gravel extraction: implications for conservation and restoration

“…The reference grasslands are oligotrophic, with low phosphorus and potassium supply (Benites et al ; Le Stradic et al ; Silveira et al ). Plant species are thus already adapted to constrained environmental conditions (Negreiros et al ), have developed efficient systems that minimize nutrient loss and optimize resource acquisition, and they are able to accumulate reserves (Abrahão et al ; Oliveira et al , ). We therefore expected plant species from reference grasslands to establish, even at sites with nonoptimal conditions.…”