Assembly patterns of plant functional traits in alpine meadow under disturbances by mowing and fertilization

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1258.2014.00086

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims Fully understanding the assembly patterns of plant functional traits in plant communities is a big challenge in the study of community ecology. The assembly patterns in alpline meadow and driving factors are still poorly known. In this study, experiments with different mowing intensities and various treatments of fertilization were conducted in alpline meadow for the purpose of improving the understanding of the assembly patterns of plant functional traits in plant community.
Methods Data on functional diversity of 10 traits for 33 species from 108 quadrats (with varying combinations of mowing and fertilization) were analyzed by randomizations tests, ANCOVA and regression analysis, respectively, for the trait convergence/divergence.
Important findings None of the traits studied showed consistently significant convergence or divergence pattern in integral gradients of fertilization and mowing treatments, while the ratios of quadrats assembled under deterministic and stochastic processes were 82.7% and 17.3%, respectively. Among the functional traits tested, growth form, life cycle, aboveground dry mass per plant, leaf area and leaf dry mass showed a stochastic pattern of assembly, but they were not affected by variations in mowing treatments and community characteristics (i.e. aboveground net primary productivity, biomass loss and vegetation height). Convergence or divergence patterns were shown in traits such as plant inclination, reproductive modes, nitrogen fixation, plant height and specific leaf area, which were affected by variations in mowing treatments and community characteristics. Among them, assembly patterns of plant inclination and specific leaf area were only affected by community characteristics, while nitrogen fixation, reproductive modes and plant height were affected by both mowing treatments and community characteristics. Moreover, the patterns of assembly varied by traits. Aboveground net primary productivity and biomass loss well explained variations in the assembly pattern of plant functional traits. Mowing and fertilization showed the reversed effects on the assembly pattern of plant height, while no significant interaction was found between mowing and fertilization. The results suggested that there were different assembly patterns of functional traits in the community: stochastic pattern of assembly was the primary, and the deterministic pattern was secondary. Deterministic pattern was trait-dependent and correlated with variations in mowing treatments and community characteristics. The balancing effect of opposite selection forces, on the other hand, could lead to stochastic assembly patterns in plant functional traits.

Key words: community assembly, ecological filters, functional diversity, trait convergence, trait divergence

LÜ Mei-Qiang,ZHU Zhi-Hong,LI Ying-Nian,YAO Tian-Hua,PAN Shi-Yu,KONG Bin-Bin. Assembly patterns of plant functional traits in alpine meadow under disturbances by mowing and fertilization[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2014, 38(9): 916-928.

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Figures/Tables 5

References 59

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性状 Trait		FD_var	Mean p	N_M	N_L	Rq (%)
植株性状 Plant trait	生长型 Growth form	0.250	0.635	2	2	96.3
	植株倾斜度 Plant inclination	0.262	0.388	17	1	84.3
	繁殖方式 Reproductive mode	0.105	0.396	46	0	57.4
	生活周期 Life cycle	0.006	0.321	1	16	84.2
	固氮性 Nitrogen fixation	0.046	0.365	1	18	82.4
	株高 Plant height (cm)	0.083	0.133	14	10	77.8
	单株地上干质量 Aboveground dry mass per plant (mg)	0.541	0.362	18	2	81.5
叶性状 Leaf trait	叶面积 Leaf area (cm²)	0.375	0.589	14	1	86.1
	比叶面积 Specific leaf area (m²·kg^-1)	0.613	0.461	14	0	87.0
	叶干质量 Leaf dry mass (mg)	0.537	0.368	10	1	89.8

性状 Trait		FD_var	Mean p	N_M	N_L	Rq (%)
植株性状 Plant trait	生长型 Growth form	0.250	0.635	2	2	96.3
	植株倾斜度 Plant inclination	0.262	0.388	17	1	84.3
	繁殖方式 Reproductive mode	0.105	0.396	46	0	57.4
	生活周期 Life cycle	0.006	0.321	1	16	84.2
	固氮性 Nitrogen fixation	0.046	0.365	1	18	82.4
	株高 Plant height (cm)	0.083	0.133	14	10	77.8
	单株地上干质量 Aboveground dry mass per plant (mg)	0.541	0.362	18	2	81.5
叶性状 Leaf trait	叶面积 Leaf area (cm²)	0.375	0.589	14	1	86.1
	比叶面积 Specific leaf area (m²·kg^-1)	0.613	0.461	14	0	87.0
	叶干质量 Leaf dry mass (mg)	0.537	0.368	10	1	89.8

性状 Trait	协变量 Covariates df = (1, 4)	变异来源 Source of variance
		主区 Whole plot	副区 Subplot
		C df = (2, 4)		F df = (1, 2)	C × F df = (2, 4)
固氮性 Nitrogen fixation	D	1.347	10.269^*		6.801
繁殖方式 Reproductive mode	ANPP	7.688^*	0.001		1.424
固氮性 Nitrogen fixation	ANPP	12.237^*	1.910		5.557
株高 Plant height (cm)	ANPP	0.879^*	9.382^*		0.474

性状 Trait	协变量 Covariates df = (1, 4)	变异来源 Source of variance
		主区 Whole plot	副区 Subplot
		C df = (2, 4)		F df = (1, 2)	C × F df = (2, 4)
固氮性 Nitrogen fixation	D	1.347	10.269^*		6.801
繁殖方式 Reproductive mode	ANPP	7.688^*	0.001		1.424
固氮性 Nitrogen fixation	ANPP	12.237^*	1.910		5.557
株高 Plant height (cm)	ANPP	0.879^*	9.382^*		0.474

性状 Trait	协变量 Covariate	刈割处理 Mowing treatment			施肥处理 Fertilization treatment
性状 Trait	协变量 Covariate	不刈割 Un-mowed	中度刈割 Moderate mowing	重度刈割 Heavy mowing	不施肥 Unfertilized	施肥 Fertilized
固氮性 Nitrogen fixation	D	0.038 ± 0.017^a	0.065 ± 0.007^a	0.065 ± 0.005^a	0.073 ± 0.006^b	0.039 ± 0.011^a
繁殖方式 Reproductive modes	ANPP	0.056 ± 0.020^a	0.099 ± 0.016^b	0.116 ± 0.013^b	0.090 ± 0.026^a	0.090 ± 0.018^a
固氮性 Nitrogen fixation	ANPP	0.003 ± 0.013^a	0.043 ± 0.010^b	0.046 ± 0.009^b	0.046 ± 0.017^a	0.015 ± 0.012^a
株高 Plant height (cm)	ANPP	0.065 ± 0.022^b	0.017 ± 0.017^a	0.048 ± 0.014^ab	-0.012 ± 0.028^a	0.098 ± 0.019^b