Strategic differentiation of subcommunities composed of evergreen and deciduous woody species associated with leaf functional traits in the subtropical mixed forest

Wang, Li; He, Yuejun; Umer, Muhammad; Guo, Yun; Tan, Qiyu; Kang, Liling; Fang, Zhengyuan; Shen, Kaiping; Xia, Tingting; Wu, Pan; Liu, Yuan; Zang, Lipeng; Liu, Qingfu; Zhao, Yan; Chen, Hongchun; Zhao, Ying

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110281

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Often, the pioneer or early successional species in degraded forests are shade-intolerant deciduous trees (Jin et al, 2017). Deciduous tree species usually adopt a resource-acquisitive strategy and have higher growth rates, unlike evergreen tree species that adopt a resource-conservative strategy (L. Wang et al, 2023). Thus, deciduous tree species can be expected to be competitively superior in more open conditions, resulting in the filtering of evergreen tree species recruits in degraded habitats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While some studies have investigated the interactive effects of climatic factors like precipitation and chronic anthropogenic disturbances on plant diversity and structure (Rito et al 2017; Ramos et al 2023), no studies have examined the effect of these interactive effects on vegetation transitions. Although studies have suggested that fire mediates the transformation of forests to drier vegetation types (savannization) (Sansevero et al, 2020; M. Wang et al, 2023), the implications of chronic anthropogenic disturbances (hereafter, CAD) and environmental factors on vegetation type transitions are less explored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chronic disturbance of moist tropical forests favours deciduous over evergreen tree communities across a climate gradient in the Western Ghats

Biswas,

Sadekar,

Biniwale

et al. 2024

Preprint

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It is well established that climatic factors such as water stress and chronic anthropogenic disturbances such as biomass extraction influence tropical forest tree community structure, richness and composition. However, while the standalone effects of these two drivers on plant communities are well-studied, their interactive effects are not. Moist tropical forests in Indias Western Ghats face a dual threat from increasingly erratic precipitation (and consequent water stress), and an intensifying anthropogenic footprint. Here, we sampled 120 tree plots (0.05 ha each) across forests with varying histories of biomass extraction and a gradient in climate water deficit (CWD, a proxy for water stress) within a 15,000 km2 landscape in the northern Western Ghats and examined whether and how disturbance history modulates relationships of tree community structure and composition with climate. As expected, tree species richness increased with decreasing water stress in less- and historically-disturbed forests but remained low in repeatedly-disturbed forests. The increase in evergreen species richness with decreasing water stress was far slower in repeatedly-disturbed forests than other categories, and the relative abundance of evergreens in the repeatedly-disturbed forests (25%) was half that in less-disturbed forests (50%) of comparable water stress in the driest parts. Overall, we show that disturbance can amplify threats from climate change to wet forest-associated evergreen tree species, many of which are threatened, while benefiting more widely distributed dry forest-associated deciduous species. In the northern Western Ghats, where much of the remaining forest cover is disturbed and dominated by deciduous tree species, the persistence of evergreen tree flora hinges on protecting existing evergreen forest patches from future disturbances and restoring locally appropriate evergreen species in secondary forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic disturbance of moist tropical forests favours deciduous over evergreen tree communities across a climate gradient in the Western Ghats

Biswas,

Sadekar,

Biniwale

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…The wet season also featured a higher SLA and LWC, but a lower LMDC, SLW, and LD ( Table S2 ; Figure 1 ). Plant communities with conservation strategies usually have a high LDMC ( Domínguez et al., 2012 ; Wang et al., 2023 ). Accordingly, we suppose that a conservation strategy was adopted during the dry season, whereas the wet season facilitated plant leaf construction and thus photosynthetic efficiency.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plant ecological behavior and resource acquisition can be measured by LDMC, in that a low LDMC indicates high resource acquisition ( Poorter et al., 2008 ; Wang et al., 2023 ). In the subtropical forest studied here, 79 evergreen broad-leaved tree species in both seasons had positive correlations between LDMC and SLW, a result consistent with previous studies ( Lambers and Poorter, 1992 ; Grime et al., 1997 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of leaf functional traits to soil nutrients in the wet and dry seasons in a subtropical forest on an island

Zhang,

Liang,

Tong

et al. 2023

Front. Plant Sci.

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IntroductionIsland ecosystems often have a disproportionate number of endemic species and unique and fragile functional characteristics. However, few examples of this type of ecosystem have been reported.MethodsWe conducted a comprehensive field study on Neilingding Island, southern China. The leaf samples of 79 subtropical forest tree species were obtained and their functional traits were studied in the dry and wet seasons to explain the relationships between plant functional traits and soil nutrients.ResultsWe found a greater availability of soil moisture content (SMC) and nutrients in the wet season than in the dry season. The values of wet season soil available phosphorus (5.97 mg·kg−1), SMC (17.67%), and soil available potassium (SAK, 266.96 mg·kg−1) were significantly higher than those of the dry season. The leaf dry matter content, specific leaf weight, leaf density, leaf total carbon, leaf total nitrogen, leaf total calcium, and the N/P and C/P ratios of leaves were all significantly higher in the dry season than in the wet season, being 18.06%, 12.90%, 12.00%, 0.17%, 3.41%, 9.02%, 26.80%, and 24.14% higher, respectively. In contrast, the leaf area (51.01 cm2), specific leaf area (152.76 cm2·g−1), leaf water content (0.59%), leaf total nitrogen (1.31%), leaf total phosphorus (0.14%), and leaf total magnesium (0.33%) were much lower in the dry season than in the wet one. There were significant pairwise correlations between leaf functional traits, but the number and strength of correlations were significantly different in the dry and wet seasons. The SAK, soil total phosphorus (STP), and pH impacted plant leaf functional traits in the dry season, whereas in the wet season, they were affected by SAK, STP, pH, and NO3− (nitrate).DiscussionBoth soil nutrients and water availability varied seasonally and could cause variation in a number of leaf traits.

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“…This plant economics strategy regarding resource conservation and acquisition trade-offs of leaf functional trait variation and differentiation synergistically at PCA resource axes, exactly as Forests 2023, 14, 1258 9 of 14 shown in Figure 3, reflects the leaf economic spectrum (LES) raised by Wright (2004) [13]. For example, Wang (2023) discovered that there were strategic trade-offs and strategic differentiations of acquisition and conservation in resources through PCA analyzing leaf functional traits to both subcommunities composed of evergreen and deciduous species from karst forests [59], exactly supporting the LES theory of Wright (2004) [13]. Therefore, our results also supported the LES according to PCA analysis of Figure 3.…”

Section: Functional Trait Differentiation Associated With Plant Resou...mentioning

confidence: 98%

Strategy Trade-Off of Predominant Stress Tolerance Relative to Competition and Reproduction Associated with Plant Functional Traits under Karst Forests

Umer

et al. 2023

Forests

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The Grime (1974) CSR framework posits that ecological strategies of competition, stress tolerance and ruderal reflect plants’ adaptability to their survival environments. Karst forests are crucial for terrestrial ecosystem functions. However, how karst forests regulate plant functional traits in ecological strategy to adapt to infertile habitats remains unclear. Therefore, we surveyed fifty-three karst forest plots and measured plant functional traits involving the plan diameter at breast height (DBH), height, leaf area (LA), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf carbon (LC) and nitrogen (LN) and phosphorus (LP) with the leaf water content (LWC). We calculated CSR components on the individual and community levels introduced by community-weighted means (CWM) using the ‘StrateFy’ calculator. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Mantel’s test were used to investigate trait correlations with CSR components. Our results showed that stress tolerance (S) contributed an average 65.88% and 63.63% in individuals and communities, respectively, followed by competition (C) at 25.82% and 29.63%, and the least, ruderal (R), at 8.30% and 6.74%. Different plant functional traits exhibited different variations, coupled with significant correlations between CSR components and PC1 scores (except for CWM− LA, SLA and LDMC). Component S increased with the increase in CWM− LC and C:N ratio, and decreased with the increase in CWM− DBH, Height, LWC, LN, and N:P ratio, while it was the opposite for C and R, highlighting strategic trade-offs associated with plant functional traits. Mantel’s test revealed varied key trait combinations for each strategy. In conclusion, the predominant stress tolerance strategy relative to competition and ruderal is a result of trade-offs regulating karst forests, in association with plant functional traits. The disentangled CSR strategies provide insights into theoretically understanding functional maintenance for infertile forest ecosystems as an evolutional regulation mechanism.

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Strategic differentiation of subcommunities composed of evergreen and deciduous woody species associated with leaf functional traits in the subtropical mixed forest

Cited by 8 publications

References 69 publications

Chronic disturbance of moist tropical forests favours deciduous over evergreen tree communities across a climate gradient in the Western Ghats

Chronic disturbance of moist tropical forests favours deciduous over evergreen tree communities across a climate gradient in the Western Ghats

Response of leaf functional traits to soil nutrients in the wet and dry seasons in a subtropical forest on an island

Strategy Trade-Off of Predominant Stress Tolerance Relative to Competition and Reproduction Associated with Plant Functional Traits under Karst Forests

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