Cargando…

Changes in trait covariance along an orographic moisture gradient reveal the relative importance of light‐ and moisture‐driven trade‐offs in subtropical rainforest communities

A range of functional trait‐based approaches have been developed to investigate community assembly processes, but most ignore how traits covary within communities. We combined existing approaches – community‐weighted means (CWMs) and functional dispersion (FDis) – with a metric of trait covariance t...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Brown, Alison, Butler, Donald W., Radford‐Smith, Julian, Dwyer, John M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9804723/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35922934
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.18418
_version_ 1784862175423102976
author Brown, Alison
Butler, Donald W.
Radford‐Smith, Julian
Dwyer, John M.
author_facet Brown, Alison
Butler, Donald W.
Radford‐Smith, Julian
Dwyer, John M.
author_sort Brown, Alison
collection PubMed
description A range of functional trait‐based approaches have been developed to investigate community assembly processes, but most ignore how traits covary within communities. We combined existing approaches – community‐weighted means (CWMs) and functional dispersion (FDis) – with a metric of trait covariance to examine assembly processes in five angiosperm assemblages along a moisture gradient in Australia's subtropics. In addition to testing hypotheses about habitat filtering along the gradient, we hypothesized that trait covariance would be strongest at both ends of the moisture gradient and weakest in the middle, reflecting trade‐offs associated with light capture in productive sites and moisture stress in dry sites. CWMs revealed evidence of climatic filtering, but FDis patterns were less clear. As hypothesized, trait covariance was weakest in the middle of the gradient but unexpectedly peaked at the second driest site due to the emergence of a clear drought tolerance–drought avoidance spectrum. At the driest site, the same spectrum was truncated at the ‘avoider’ end, revealing important information about habitat filtering in this system. Our focus on trait covariance revealed the nature and strength of trade‐offs imposed by light and moisture availability, complementing insights gained about community assembly from existing trait‐based approaches.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9804723
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-98047232023-01-06 Changes in trait covariance along an orographic moisture gradient reveal the relative importance of light‐ and moisture‐driven trade‐offs in subtropical rainforest communities Brown, Alison Butler, Donald W. Radford‐Smith, Julian Dwyer, John M. New Phytol Research A range of functional trait‐based approaches have been developed to investigate community assembly processes, but most ignore how traits covary within communities. We combined existing approaches – community‐weighted means (CWMs) and functional dispersion (FDis) – with a metric of trait covariance to examine assembly processes in five angiosperm assemblages along a moisture gradient in Australia's subtropics. In addition to testing hypotheses about habitat filtering along the gradient, we hypothesized that trait covariance would be strongest at both ends of the moisture gradient and weakest in the middle, reflecting trade‐offs associated with light capture in productive sites and moisture stress in dry sites. CWMs revealed evidence of climatic filtering, but FDis patterns were less clear. As hypothesized, trait covariance was weakest in the middle of the gradient but unexpectedly peaked at the second driest site due to the emergence of a clear drought tolerance–drought avoidance spectrum. At the driest site, the same spectrum was truncated at the ‘avoider’ end, revealing important information about habitat filtering in this system. Our focus on trait covariance revealed the nature and strength of trade‐offs imposed by light and moisture availability, complementing insights gained about community assembly from existing trait‐based approaches. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-08-20 2022-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9804723/ /pubmed/35922934 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.18418 Text en © 2022 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2022 New Phytologist Foundation. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Research
Brown, Alison
Butler, Donald W.
Radford‐Smith, Julian
Dwyer, John M.
Changes in trait covariance along an orographic moisture gradient reveal the relative importance of light‐ and moisture‐driven trade‐offs in subtropical rainforest communities
title Changes in trait covariance along an orographic moisture gradient reveal the relative importance of light‐ and moisture‐driven trade‐offs in subtropical rainforest communities
title_full Changes in trait covariance along an orographic moisture gradient reveal the relative importance of light‐ and moisture‐driven trade‐offs in subtropical rainforest communities
title_fullStr Changes in trait covariance along an orographic moisture gradient reveal the relative importance of light‐ and moisture‐driven trade‐offs in subtropical rainforest communities
title_full_unstemmed Changes in trait covariance along an orographic moisture gradient reveal the relative importance of light‐ and moisture‐driven trade‐offs in subtropical rainforest communities
title_short Changes in trait covariance along an orographic moisture gradient reveal the relative importance of light‐ and moisture‐driven trade‐offs in subtropical rainforest communities
title_sort changes in trait covariance along an orographic moisture gradient reveal the relative importance of light‐ and moisture‐driven trade‐offs in subtropical rainforest communities
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9804723/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35922934
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.18418
work_keys_str_mv AT brownalison changesintraitcovariancealonganorographicmoisturegradientrevealtherelativeimportanceoflightandmoisturedriventradeoffsinsubtropicalrainforestcommunities
AT butlerdonaldw changesintraitcovariancealonganorographicmoisturegradientrevealtherelativeimportanceoflightandmoisturedriventradeoffsinsubtropicalrainforestcommunities
AT radfordsmithjulian changesintraitcovariancealonganorographicmoisturegradientrevealtherelativeimportanceoflightandmoisturedriventradeoffsinsubtropicalrainforestcommunities
AT dwyerjohnm changesintraitcovariancealonganorographicmoisturegradientrevealtherelativeimportanceoflightandmoisturedriventradeoffsinsubtropicalrainforestcommunities