Patterns and relationships of plant traits, community structural attributes, and eco-hydrological functions during a subtropical secondary succession in central Yunnan, Southwest China

Abstract

Human-induced changes in land use lead to major changes in plant community composition and structure which have strong effects on eco-hydrological processes and functions. We here tested the hypothesis that changes in traits of living plants have resulted in changes in structural attributes of the community that influenced eco-hydrological functions by altering eco-hydrological processes. This was done in the context of a subtropical secondary forest suc­cession following land abandonment in Central Yunnan (Southwest China). During the succession, species with high specific leaf area (SLA), high leaf nitrogen concentration (LNC), high specific root length (SRL), and low leaf dry matter content (LDMC) were progressively replaced by species with the opposite characteristics. The obtained results of correlation analyses were as follows: (1) Correlations were significant between community-aggregated SLA, LNC, and the leaf area index (LAI). Significant correlations were detected between LAI, canopy interception and stemflow, and surface runoff and soil erosion. (2) Significant correlations were also found between community-aggregated SLA, LNC, LDMC, and accumulated litter biomass. High accumulated litter biomass strongly increases the maximum water-retaining capac­ity of litter. However, significant correlations were not found between the maximum water-retaining capacity of litter and surface runoff and soil erosion. (3) Correlations were significant between community-aggregated SLA, LNC, and fine root biomass. Fine root biomass was not significantly related to the maximum water-retaining capacity of the soil, but was significantly related to surface runoff and soil erosion. These results suggest that canopy characteristics play a more important role in control of runoff and soil erosion at the studied site. It follows that plant functional traits are closely linked with canopy characteristics, which should be used as a standard for selecting species in restoration and revegetation for water and soil conservation

Maintenance of constant functional diversity during secondary succession of a subtropical forest in China

“…; Fu et al. ), but contradict results from forest successions (Mason et al. ) and biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments (Tilman et al.…”

Hydraulic redistribution by plants and nutrient stoichiometry: Shifts under global change

“…The strong relationships between plants and hydrology with nutrient cycling, availability and stoichiometry are now additionally being impacted by all those drivers of global change, such as land-use changes, drought, warming, eutrophication or invasive plant species, that alter plant structure and functioning, the hydrological cycle and nutrient availability itself. Land-use changes and water pollution related to urban and agricultural loadings (Mulholland et al, 1997;Sobota et al, 2009), increases in livestock (Chartier et al, 2011), changes in species distribution and the frequency of fire (Engel et al, 2005;Jacobs et al, 2007;Alexander and Arthur, 2010;Smith et al, 2012), forest management (Webb and Kathuria, 2012), land abandonment (Fu et al, 2009) and the intensification of agriculture followed, in most cases, by increases in N in runoff (Sobota et al, 2009) have been the key drivers of global change most studied in relation to shifts in biogeohydrology. We here focus on the impacts from climate change, eutrophication and invasive species on runoff and water redistribution by plants.…”

“…Land‐use changes and water pollution related to urban and agricultural loadings (Mulholland et al ., ; Sobota et al ., ), increases in livestock (Chartier et al ., ), changes in species distribution and the frequency of fire (Engel et al ., ; Jacobs et al ., ; Alexander and Arthur, ; Smith et al ., ), forest management (Webb and Kathuria, ), land abandonment (Fu et al ., ) and the intensification of agriculture followed, in most cases, by increases in N in runoff (Sobota et al ., ) have been the key drivers of global change most studied in relation to shifts in biogeohydrology. We here focus on the impacts from climate change, eutrophication and invasive species on runoff and water redistribution by plants.…”

Carbon Sink and Bio-Chemical Potentiality of Two Legume Tree Species

“…The high plant height may be attributed to the production of belowground biomass, which was in agreement with the findings of other researchers (Cunniff et al 2015, Saifuddin & Normaniza 2014. Fu et al (2009) specified that canopy characteristics, plant biomass and plant growth were important factors for selecting revegetation species for soil conservation.…”