Functional traits associated with plant colonizing and competitive ability influence species abundance during secondary succession: Evidence from subalpine meadows of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

It is widely recognized that colonists and competitors dominate early and late succession, respectively, with selected species having different colonizing and competitive abilities. However, it remains unknown whether colonizing and competitive ability can determine species abundance directly over succession. The data for five key functional traits were collected (photosynthesis rate, leaf turgor loss point, leaf proline content, seed mass, and seed germination rate), which are direct indicators of plant competitive and colonizing abilities including growth, drought and cold stress resistance, dispersal, and seed dormancy. Here, we tested the effects of colonizing and competitive abilities on species abundance, by employing a linear mixed‐effects model to examine the shifts in the relationship between species abundance and these five colonization and competition‐related traits in species‐rich subalpine secondary successional meadows (at 4, 6, 10, 13 years of age, and undisturbed, respectively) of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. The abundant species at the early‐successional meadows tend to have high photosynthetic rate, high leaf proline content, low seed mass, and seed germination rate for having high colonizing ability, but low competitive ability. By contrast, late‐successional communities tend to be dominated by species with high competitive ability, but low colonizing ability, indicated by large seeds, high seed germination rate, low photosynthetic rate, and leaf proline content. The observed directional shifts in the relationships between traits (photosynthetic rate, leaf proline content, seed mass, and seed germination rate) and abundance with successional age, bring two new understandings of community assembly during succession of subalpine meadows in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. First, it discloses that the differences in species abundance over succession can be directly attributed to differences in colonizing and competitive abilities of different species. Second, it expands the effects of multiple life historical differences including growth, resource competitive ability, cold stress resistance, dispersal, and seed germination strategy, represented by functional traits on community assembly along succession, that is, from the species to the community level.

Together we stand, divided we fall: Effects of livestock grazing on vegetation patches in a desert community

“…Many plant traits have been documented to predict plant responses to environmental changes or disturbances, such as specific leaf area (SLA), leaf chemical composition, relative growth rate (RGR), photosynthetic pathway, life cycle, plant height, architecture, resprouting and seed traits, all of which can be used as good indicators of ecosystem health (Lavorel & Garnier, 2002; Lavorel et al, 2011; Zhang, et al, 2018a). There are also several studies that have investigated how functional traits vary across successional stages (Prach et al, 1997; Schleicher et al, 2011; Zhang et al, 2018b; Chang & Turner, 2019) and the relationship between plant traits and plant–plant interactions with ecosystem functions and properties (Díaz et al, 1999; Conti & Díaz, 2013; Soliveres et al, 2015; Gaitán et al, 2017). However, to our knowledge, how livestock grazing affects interactions among plant species with a different successional role across a grazing gradient has never been studied.…”

Disturbance and the elevation ranges of woody plant species in the mountains of Costa Rica

“…Such responses depend on their ability to colonize and to compete (Cadotte, 2007;Connell & Slatyer, 1977;Swaine & Whitmore, 1988). Tree responses thus depend on the competition-colonization trade-offs among the species present (Huston & Smith, 1987;Muscarella et al, 2017;Zhang, Qi, & Liu, 2018). In nature, tree species' strategies typically appear scattered along a conceptualized "colonization-competition axis" representing a broad range of competition and dispersal abilities and strategies (Adler et al, 2014;Salguero-Gómez et al, 2016).…”

Impacts of Land-Use Changes on Vegetation and Ecosystem Functioning: Old-Field Secondary Succession

“…In deforested lands with grassland cover, native trees can accelerate spontaneous succession. Pioneer species dominate the first stages of succession over non-pioneer species; some studies have observed a higher survival rate for non-pioneer species due to their richer seed bank and competence abilities [ 54 , 62 ]. Some morphological traits (i.e., height) or the number of individuals in a species provide information on vegetation dynamics, such as which species groups were the first invaders, whether there are facilitation or competition processes, or future trends.…”

“…The germination rate was negatively correlated with species abundance in the early stages and negatively in the late stages of the non-altered site. These results are related to the replacement of pioneer species in the early stages with competitive species in the late stages [ 54 , 62 ].…”

“…The images may have an inadequate resolution and may not be able to be easily dated. Sites are sometimes abandoned for a few years and then cultivated again, so it is essential to check whether the abandonment remains unaltered [ 23 , 61 , 62 , 164 ]. There are some preliminary concepts for assessing a chronosequence such as ecological succession, changes in the composition/structure of species over time, and the different types of severity (primary or secondary).…”