Plant Functional Niches in Forests Across Four Climatic Zones: Exploring the Periodic Table of Niches Based on Plant Functional Traits

Yu, Ruoyun; Huang, Jihong; Yue, Xu; Ding, Yi

doi:10.3389/fpls.2020.00841

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 58 publications

(107 reference statements)

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“…Tropical rainforest in tropical climatic zones, with high temperatures and moisture 36 (Rosenfield et al 2019) but variable soil fertility 62 (Ding et al 2017), favored CS strategy which is simultaneously with high competition and stress tolerance to survive and grow 22 . By contrast, cold-temperate coniferous forest in cold-temperate climatic zones, with low temperature and water deprivations 24 , favored species with extremely high stress tolerance (e.g. S strategy) to cluster 5 , 27 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Both of them are located at an intermediate position along the latitudinal and environmental gradients. Abiotic and biotic conditions are relatively favorable and high availability of resources compared with tropical rainforest and cold-temperate coniferous forest 24 , leading to that species in these two forest types do not need to be highly competitive or stress tolerant to survive and grow. Meanwhile, probably due to the strong trade-off among the C, S and R strategies, CSR-selected strategies (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…R-selected species, or ruderalism, invest a large proportion of their resources not in the whole body but in their different propagules from which they can regenerate in conditions of repeated, often destructive disturbances 22 . A trait-based analysis of plant adaptations may provide a better insight into community dynamics, because easily measurable functional traits not only co-vary with environmental gradients but also directly reflect the adaptive strategies of different species under varied living conditions 23 , 24 . Recently, functional traits have been used for identifying ecological strategies, reflecting how species cope with environmental factors 15 , 20 , 22 , 25 , 26 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shifts in ecological strategy spectra of typical forest vegetation types across four climatic zones

Han

Huang

Zang

2021

Sci Rep

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Ecological strategy spectrum is the relative proportion of species in different categories of ecological strategies in a biotic community. Here, we explored ecological strategy spectra in typical forest vegetation types across four climatic zones in China. We classified ecological strategy categories by using the “StrateFy” ordination method based on three leaf functional traits. Results showed that the predominant ecological strategies of species in the tropical rainforest were CS-selected, and the predominant categories in the evergreen-deciduous broadleaved mixed forest and warm-temperate coniferous-broadleaved mixed forest were CSR and S/CSR categories respectively, whereas those in the cold-temperate coniferous forest were the S-selected ones. Ecological strategy richness of forest vegetation decreased significantly with the increase of latitude. The categories of ecological strategies with more component S increased while those with more component C decreased with the change of typical forest vegetation types from tropical rainforest through evergreen-deciduous broadleaved mixed forest and warm-temperate coniferous-broadleaved mixed forest to cool-temperate coniferous forest. Our findings highlight the usefulness of Grime’s C-S-R scheme for predicting the responses of vegetation to environmental changes, and the results are helpful in further elucidating species coexistence and community assembly in varied climatic and geographic settings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shifts in ecological strategy spectra of typical forest vegetation types across four climatic zones

Han

Huang

Zang

2021

Sci Rep

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“…Although composite traits (such as those summarized on a PCA axis) could be potential predictors of growth rates (Liu et al, 2016;Yu et al, 2020), in our study they did not capture the variation of the main processes related to growth, mainly in a light-limited environment (Table 2). The main leaf traits (hubs) observed in plant network traits did not compose the best models in both environments.…”

Section: Growth Rates Are Better Explained By a Multiple Set Of Traitsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Testing for functional significance of traits: Effect of the light environment in tropical tree saplings

Modolo

Santos

Ferreira

2021

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Therefore, although the number of species increases, the number of ecological strategies decreases. The differences in strategy richness (among community types) may be due to variation in the driving forces underlying successional processes, which may be affected by the interaction of multiple environmental factors [46,51].…”

Section: Dynamic Successional Patterns In Community Ecological Strate...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Strategy Spectra for Communities of Different Successional Stages in the Tropical Lowland Rainforest of Hainan Island

Chen

Wen

et al. 2022

Forests

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Plant ecological strategies are shaped by long-term adaptation to the environment and are beneficial to plant survival and reproduction. Research is ongoing to better understand how plants best allocate resources for growth, survival and reproduction, as well as how ecological strategies may shift in plant communities over the course of succession. In this study, 12 forest dynamics plots in three different successional stages were selected for study in the tropical lowland rainforest ecosystem of Hainan Island. For each plot, using Grime’s competitor, a stress-tolerator, the ruderal (CSR) scheme and using the CSR ratio tool “StrateFy”, an ecological strategy spectrum was constructed using functional trait data obtained by collecting leaf samples from all woody species. The ecological strategy spectra were compared across successional stages to reveal successional dynamics. The results showed: (1) The ecological strategy spectra varied among forest communities belonging to three different successional stages. (2) The community-weighted mean CSR (CWM-CSR) strategies shifted with succession: CWM-S values decreased, while the CWM-C and CWM-R values increased. Overall, shifts in plant functional traits occurred slowly and steadily with succession showing complex and diverse trade-offs and leading to variation among the ecological strategy spectra of different successional stages.

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Plant Functional Niches in Forests Across Four Climatic Zones: Exploring the Periodic Table of Niches Based on Plant Functional Traits

Cited by 11 publications

References 58 publications

Shifts in ecological strategy spectra of typical forest vegetation types across four climatic zones

Shifts in ecological strategy spectra of typical forest vegetation types across four climatic zones

Testing for functional significance of traits: Effect of the light environment in tropical tree saplings

Ecological Strategy Spectra for Communities of Different Successional Stages in the Tropical Lowland Rainforest of Hainan Island

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