Plant functional trait diversity and structural diversity co-underpin ecosystem multifunctionality in subtropical forests

Ouyang, Shuai; Gou, Mengmeng; Liu, Yue; Chen, Liang; Deng, Xiaomin; Zhao, Zhichao; Zeng, Yelin; Hu, Yukun; Peng, Changhui; Xiang, Wenhua

doi:10.1016/j.fecs.2023.100093

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…In this study, we used the maximum height measured in each plot (four subplots) to represent plant resistance capacity in this region. This is because the integrated maximum tree height can comprehensively reflect the resistance and resilience of the ecosystem as well as the status of the structure and function of the ecosystem fluctuating within a certain threshold range over time ( Gross et al., 2017 ; Ouyang et al., 2023 ). In addition, maximum height is related to the multidimensional space of plant light capture, water conduction, and tolerance to harsh environment, which has been confirmed in many studies ( Poorter et al., 2012 ; Marks et al., 2016 ; Prado-Junior et al., 2017 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem multifunctionality, maximum height, and biodiversity of shrub communities affected by precipitation fluctuations in Northwest China

Du,

Tian,

Sun

et al. 2023

Front. Plant Sci.

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IntroductionDryland ecosystems face serious threats from climate change. Establishing the spatial pattern of ecosystem multifunctionality, maximum height and the correlation of biodiversity patterns with climate change is important for understanding changes in complex ecosystem processes. However, the understanding of their relationships across large spatial areas remains limited in drylands.MethodsAccordingly, this study examined the spatial patterns of ecosystem multifunctionality, maximum height and considered a set of potential environmental drivers by investigating natural shrub communities in Northwest China.ResultsWe found that the ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) and maximum height of shrub communities were both affected by longitude, which was positively correlated with the precipitation gradient. Specifically, the EMF was driven by high precipitation seasonality, and the maximum height was driven by high precipitation stability during the growing season. Among the multiple biodiversity predictors, species beta diversity (SD-beta) is the most common in determining EMF, although this relationship is weak.DiscussionUnlike tree life form, we did not observe biodiversity-maximum height relationships in shrub communities. Based on these results, we suggest that more attention should be paid to the climatical fluctuations mediated biodiversity mechanisms, which are tightly correlated with ecosystem’s service capacity and resistance capacity under a rapid climate change scenario in the future.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem multifunctionality, maximum height, and biodiversity of shrub communities affected by precipitation fluctuations in Northwest China

Du,

Tian,

Sun

et al. 2023

Front. Plant Sci.

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“…Among these, species diversity estimated were obtained using the vegan package (Oksanen, 2015) in R4.0.3 (R core team, 2022), which includes species richness, the Simpson index, the Shannon index, and the evenness index (Li et al, 2018). Using the functional diversity (FD) package (Mammola et al, 2021) in R4.0.3, we calculated the functional diversity of various plots, which included the functional richness index, functional divergence index, functional dispersion index, functional evenness index, and Rao's quadratic entropy index (Laliberte and Legendre, 2010;Ouyang et al, 2023). With respect to phylogenetic diversity, we calculated Faith's phylogenetic diversity, the mean pairwise phylogenetic distance, and the mean nearest phylogenetic distance using the picante package (Kembel et al, 2010) in R4.0.3 (Zhang et al, 2019).…”

Section: The Community-weighted Means Of Traits and Plant Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity and soil chemical properties jointly explained the basal area in karst forest

Lu,

Zeng,

Zeng

et al. 2023

Front. For. Glob. Change

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IntroductionPlant diversity and soil chemical properties are important factors affecting the plant growth. We sought to compare the explanatory rates of diversity and soil chemical properties in explaining the variation of basal area in karst forests, and also sought to compare the relative importance of the niche complementarity and mass ratio hypotheses.MethodsOn the basis of linear regression and structural equation modelling, we examined the correlation between the basal area of plant communities and species diversity, functional diversity, phylogenetic diversity, the community-weighted mean (CWM) of traits, and soil chemical properties, using data obtained from 35 monitoring plots in southwest China.ResultsSpecies, functional, and phylogenetic diversities were all significantly correlated with the basal area of the plant community, among the indices of which, Faith’s phylogenetic diversity was found to have the greatest explanatory power for basal area. These plant diversity indices can better explain the variation in basal area than the CWM of traits, suggesting the niche complementarity hypothesis is more applicable than the mass ratio hypothesis. Moreover, soil chemical properties also have an equal important impact. Different chemical properties were found to show significant positive correlations with basal area, and their total effects on basal area were shown to be greater than the CWM of traits.DiscussionAttention should be paid to diversity and soil chemical properties. This study provides theoretical guidance for understanding biodiversity maintenance mechanisms and protecting karst forests.

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“…To achieve general conclusions, it is therefore crucial to study multiple taxa and functions. Here, multidiversity and multifunctionality, defined as generalized indices over several taxa and functions (Allan et al, 2014; Manning et al, 2018), can provide insight into biodiversity and ecosystem function responses (Ampoorter et al, 2020; Ouyang et al, 2023; Penone et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stand structure as the proximate driver of endemic biodiversity and ecosystem functions in tropical mosaic landscapes

Rajaonarimalala,

Korol,

Andrianarimisa

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Transformation of forests into agricultural lands threatens biodiversity and ecosystem functions globally. In the biodiversity hotspot Madagascar, key ecosystem functions along with highly endemic flora and fauna are under threat. Comprehensive studies identifying proximate drivers are lacking, with no studies accounting for endemic species richness across multiple taxa. We assess how plot-scale stand structural attributes (basal area, leaf area index, diameter diversity, and tree species richness) and landscape-scale forest cover affect biodiversity (species richness of butterflies, ants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, herbaceous plants, and multidiversity) and ecosystem functions (soil organic carbon, predation rate, acoustic diversity index, and multifunctionality) in the tropical mosaic landscape of northeastern Madagascar. Across a prevalent land-use gradient in the region, we sampled five woody land-use types: old-growth forest, forest fragment, woody fallow, forest-derived and fallow-derived vanilla agroforests. Complexly structured stands with a larger basal area and higher tree species richness promoted greater endemic multidiversity and certain ecosystem functions. Landscape-scale forest cover significantly favored, particularly, endemic bird species richness. Our models explained 70% of the variance in endemic multidiversity, 26% in multidiversity, and 43% in multifunctionality. Significant effects directions of our predictors differed between taxa but were univocally positive for endemic species richness. Our findings highlight that a simplified stand structure, resulting from land-use change, substantially reduces endemic biodiversity and ecosystem functions in this historically forested region. Conservation actions should aim at maintaining complex stand structure in forests and agroforests, while restoration interventions should focus on re-building such structures.

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Plant functional trait diversity and structural diversity co-underpin ecosystem multifunctionality in subtropical forests

Cited by 15 publications

References 90 publications

Ecosystem multifunctionality, maximum height, and biodiversity of shrub communities affected by precipitation fluctuations in Northwest China

Ecosystem multifunctionality, maximum height, and biodiversity of shrub communities affected by precipitation fluctuations in Northwest China

Diversity and soil chemical properties jointly explained the basal area in karst forest

Stand structure as the proximate driver of endemic biodiversity and ecosystem functions in tropical mosaic landscapes

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