Community assembly and shifts in plant trait distributions across an environmental gradient in coastal California

被引:988
作者
Cornwell, William K. [1 ]
Ackerly, David D. [2 ]
机构
[1] Stanford Univ, Dept Biol Sci, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
[2] Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Integrat Biol, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
community assembly; environmental gradient; environment-species-trait relationship; habitat filtering; Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve; California; USA; limiting similarity; plant functional traits; LIMITING SIMILARITY; SPECIES-RICHNESS; WOODY-PLANTS; SEED-SIZE; HYDRAULIC ARCHITECTURE; FUNCTIONAL TRAITS; GROWTH-RATE; LOW-LIGHT; WATER; CONVERGENCE;
D O I
10.1890/07-1134.1
中图分类号
Q14 [生态学(生物生态学)];
学科分类号
071012 ; 0713 ;
摘要
Community assembly processes are thought to shape the mean, spread, and spacing of functional trait values within communities. Two broad categories of assembly processes have been proposed: first, a habitat filter that restricts the range of viable strategies and second, a partitioning of microsites and/or resources that leads to a limit to the similarity of coexisting species. The strength of both processes may be dependent on conditions at a particular site and may change along an abiotic gradient. We sampled environmental variables and plant communities in 44 plots across the varied topography of a coastal California landscape. We characterized 14 leaf, stem, and root traits for 54 woody plant species, including detailed intraspecific data for two traits with the goal of understanding the connection between traits and assembly processes in a variety of environmental conditions. We examined the within-community mean, range, variance, kurtosis, and other measures of spacing of trait values. In this landscape, there was a topographically mediated gradient in water availability. Across this gradient we observed strong shifts in both the plot-level mean trait values and the variation in trait values within communities. Trends in trait means with the environment were due largely to species turnover, with intraspecific shifts playing a smaller role. Traits associated with a vertical partitioning of light showed a greater range and variance on the wet soils, while nitrogen per area, which is associated with water use efficiency, showed a greater spread on the dry soils. We found strong nonrandom patterns in the trait distributions consistent with expectations based on trait-mediated community assembly. There was a significant reduction in the range of six out of 11 leaf and stem functional trait values relative to a null model. For specific leaf area (SLA) we found a significant even spacing of trait values relative to the null model. For seed size we found a more platykurtic distribution than expected. These results suggest that both a habitat filter and a limit to the similarity of coexisting species can simultaneously shape the distribution of traits and the assembly of local plant communities.
引用
收藏
页码:109 / 126
页数:18
相关论文
共 103 条
[11]   Growth and mortality in high and low light: trends among 15 shade-tolerant tropical rain forest tree species [J].
Bloor, JMG ;
Grubb, PJ .
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, 2003, 91 (01) :77-85
[12]   Mechanisms of maintenance of species diversity [J].
Chesson, P .
ANNUAL REVIEW OF ECOLOGY AND SYSTEMATICS, 2000, 31 :343-366
[13]   Resolving the biodiversity paradox [J].
Clark, James S. ;
Dietze, Mike ;
Chakraborty, Sukhendu ;
Agarwal, Pankaj K. ;
Ibanez, Ines ;
LaDeau, Shannon ;
Wolosin, Mike .
ECOLOGY LETTERS, 2007, 10 (08) :647-659
[15]   Colonization, tolerance, competition and seed-size variation within functional groups [J].
Coomes, DA ;
Grubb, PJ .
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, 2003, 18 (06) :283-291
[16]   A handbook of protocols for standardised and easy measurement of plant functional traits worldwide [J].
Cornelissen, JHC ;
Lavorel, S ;
Garnier, E ;
Díaz, S ;
Buchmann, N ;
Gurvich, DE ;
Reich, PB ;
ter Steege, H ;
Morgan, HD ;
van der Heijden, MGA ;
Pausas, JG ;
Poorter, H .
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY, 2003, 51 (04) :335-380
[17]   Adjustment of structure and function of Hawaiian Metrosideros polymorpha at high vs. low precipitation [J].
Cornwell, W. K. ;
Bhaskar, R. ;
Sack, L. ;
Cordell, S. ;
Lunch, C. K. .
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, 2007, 21 (06) :1063-1071
[18]  
Cornwell WK, 2006, ECOLOGY, V87, P1465, DOI 10.1890/0012-9658(2006)87[1465:ATTFHF]2.0.CO
[19]  
2
[20]   Regional and local patterns in plant species richness with respect to resource availability [J].
Cornwell, WK ;
Grubb, PJ .
OIKOS, 2003, 100 (03) :417-428