Divergent long- and short-term responses to environmental gradients in specific leaf area of grassland species

Liu, Zhaogang; Dong, Ning; Zhang, Hongxiang; Zhao, Minshou; Ren, Tingting; Liu, Congcong; Westerband, Andrea C.; He, Nianpeng

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108058

Cited by 18 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 67 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our study showed that species with higher SLA are more likely to be lost under N addition (Supporting information), leading to communities dominated by species with similarly low SLA values. However, consistent with a previous study (Liu et al 2021), interspecific variability of SLA within communities was divergent under warming, which suggested that the changes of interspecific variability of SLA within communities may depend on the type of perturbations. Because communities dominated by species with low or similar SLA values had reduced asynchronous dynamics, the resulting effect of N addition via functional traits was to increase species asynchrony.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Intra‐ and interspecific variability of specific leaf area mitigate the reduction of community stability in response to warming and nitrogen addition

Huang

Wang

Liu

et al. 2022

Oikos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Global environmental changes are reducing the diversity and affecting the functioning of natural ecosystems as well as their ability to reliably provide ecosystem functions and services to mankind. Many studies have shown that a greater plant diversity can stabilize community productivity against environmental fluctuations. However, most of these studies focused on plant species richness, thus overlooking the potential role of functional traits in stabilizing community productivity against environmental fluctuations. Whether and how functional trait mean and variability influence community stability in response to environmental changes and their relative contributions to community stability are largely unknown. Here, we used a 10-year experiment to investigate the role of species richness, as well as functional mean and intra-and interspecific variability of specific leaf area (SLA) of plants within-and among communities in driving community stability in response to nitrogen (N) addition and warming. We found that both N addition and warming reduced the temporal stability of community productivity by reducing species richness and its contribution to species asynchrony and species stability. In contrast, changes in the mean and variability of SLA in response to N addition and warming mitigated the reduction of community stability. Specifically, N addition reduced variation in SLA both by reducing interspecific differences in SLA within communities and differences in mean values of SLA among communities. Warming increased intraspecific differences in SLA among communities, leading to higher species stability that partly buffered the reduction of community stability. Our study demonstrates the role of trait mean and variability in mitigating the reduction of community stability in response to two pervasive global environmental changes. Gaining a deeper understanding of the processes linking global changes and the stability of our ecosystems requires integrating both trait mean values and trait variability.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Intra‐ and interspecific variability of specific leaf area mitigate the reduction of community stability in response to warming and nitrogen addition

Huang

Wang

Liu

et al. 2022

Oikos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Characteristics of community system diversity make community trait variation a more effective indicator of plant responses to environmental change than species traits alone ( Poorter et al, 2009 ), which ignore interspecific interactions ( Taylor et al, 2015 ). In general, community functional traits are a better indicator of the ability of plants to access resources than the traits of individual species ( Liu et al, 2021 ). At the community level, the resource utilization strategies of plants occupying different life forms are significantly different ( Cheng et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate factors determine the utilization strategy of forest plant resources at large scales

Wang

Gao

2022

Front. Plant Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Plant functional traits are a representation of plant resource utilization strategies. Plants with higher specific leaf area (SLA) and lower leaf dry matter content (LDMC) exhibit faster investment-return resource utilization strategies. However, the distribution patterns and driving factors of plant resource utilization strategies at the macroscale are rarely studied. We investigated the relative importance of climatic and soil factors in shaping plant resource utilization strategies at different life forms in forests using data collected from 926 plots across 163 forests in China. SLA and LDMC of plants at different life forms (i.e., trees, shrubs, and herbs) differ significantly. Resource utilization strategies show significant geographical differences, with vegetation in the western arid regions adopting a slower investment-return survival strategy and vegetation in warmer and wetter areas adopting a faster investment-return survival strategy. SLA decreases significantly with increased temperature and reduced rainfall, and vegetation growing in these conditions exhibits conservative resource utilization. Mean annual precipitation (MAP) is a key climatic factor that controls the resource utilization strategies of plants at the macroscale. Plants use resources more conservatively as soil pH increases. The influence of climate and soil factors is coupled to determine the resource utilization strategies of plants occupying different life forms at the macroscale, but the relative contribution of each varies across life forms. Our findings provide a theoretical framework for understanding the potential impact of increasing global temperatures on plant resource utilization.

show abstract

“…In our study, the CUEe decreased with increasing rainfall, and it was also lower within the low-temperature range ( Figure 5 ). Generally, rainfall on the Tibetan Plateau and agro-pastoral ecotones was higher than that in the other EVAs, but the temperature was lower ( Liu et al., 2021 ), resulting in a low CUEe.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Ecosystem carbon use efficiency in ecologically vulnerable areas in China: Variation and influencing factors

Liu

Chen

et al. 2022

Front. Plant Sci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ecologically vulnerable areas (EVAs) are regions with ecosystems that are fragile and vulnerable to degradation under external disturbances, e.g., environmental changes and human activities. A comprehensive understanding of the climate change characteristics of EVAs in China is of great guiding significance for ecological protection and economic development. The ecosystem carbon use efficiency (CUEe) can be defined as the ratio of the net ecosystem productivity (NEP) to gross primary productivity (GPP), one of the most important ecological indicators of ecosystems, representing the capacity for carbon transfer from the atmosphere to a potential ecosystem carbon sink. Understanding the variation in the CUEe and its controlling factors is paramount for regional carbon budget evaluation. Although many CUEe studies have been performed, the spatial variation characteristics and influencing factors of the CUEe are still unclear, especially in EVAs in China. In this study, we synthesized 55 field measurements (3 forestland sites, 37 grassland sites, 6 cropland sites, 9 wetland sites) of the CUEe to examine its variation and influencing factors in EVAs in China. The results showed that the CUEe in EVAs in China ranged from -0.39 to 0.67 with a mean value of 0.20. There were no significant differences in the CUEe among different vegetation types, but there were significant differences in CUEe among the different EVAs (agro-pastoral ecotones < Tibetan Plateau < arid and semiarid areas < Loess Plateau). The CUEe first decreased and then increased with increasing mean annual temperature (MAT), soil pH and soil organic carbon (SOC) and decreased with increasing mean annual precipitation (MAP). The most important factors affecting the CUEe were biotic factors (NEP, GPP, and leaf area index (LAI)). Biotic factors directly affected the CUEe, while climate (MAT and MAP) and soil factors (soil pH and SOC) exerted indirect effects. The results illustrated the comprehensive effect of environmental factors and ecosystem attributes on CUEe variation, which is of great value for the evaluation of regional ecosystem functions.

show abstract

Divergent long- and short-term responses to environmental gradients in specific leaf area of grassland species

Cited by 18 publications

References 67 publications

Intra‐ and interspecific variability of specific leaf area mitigate the reduction of community stability in response to warming and nitrogen addition

Intra‐ and interspecific variability of specific leaf area mitigate the reduction of community stability in response to warming and nitrogen addition

Climate factors determine the utilization strategy of forest plant resources at large scales

Ecosystem carbon use efficiency in ecologically vulnerable areas in China: Variation and influencing factors

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About