Influence of climatic variables on CSR strategies of aquatic plants in a semiarid region

Abstract

Temporary pools in semiarid regions are influenced by climatic seasonality and the extremes of moisture/desiccation effects influence mechanisms for plant survival, which should be analyzed based on competitor (C), ruderal (R), or stress tolerator (S) strategies. The aim of the present study was to evaluate how aridity exerts an influence on CSR functional groups of aquatic plants in temporary pools. Aquatic plants were sampled from 27 temporary pools in areas with a climatic gradient of evaporation, precipitation, and temperature. The distribution of functional groups along the environmental gradient was analyzed through redundancy analysis and patterns of CSR strategies were analyzed using linear correlation. We found that assemblages of macrophyte ponds were composed mainly of intermediate R/CR strategies. Evaporation exerted a positive influence on the occurrence of species with larger specific leaf area and a negative influence on the occurrence of taller species. Moreover, ponds in regions with greater evaporation had greater species richness (r 2 = 0.2, P \ 0.01). The same was found for competitors (r 2 = 0.2, P \ 0.01) but not for ruderal or tolerant classes. In conclusion, climatic conditions influence CSR classes and exert a specific influence on the specific functional traits of species in temporary pools of semiarid regions.

Breaking the misconception of a dry and lifeless semiarid region: the diversity and distribution of aquatic flora in wetlands of the Brazilian Northeast

“…The rivers of the semiarid region present wide variation in the water column due to rainfall irregularity, selecting species with high resistance and resilience in response to hydric disturbances (Maltchick & Pedro 2001). This may influence the low number of exclusive species, which tend to present mechanisms for survival in temporary environments based on ruderal strategies, due to the desiccation of the habitat and the consequent loss of biomass during the dry season (Albuquerque et al 2020).…”

“…Aquatic plants occur both in coastal environments (Matias et al 2003;Moro et al 2014) and in temporary and permanent aquatic systems, natural or artificial, located in the semiarid region (Paiva et al 2014;Albuquerque et al 2020). In shallow lagoons, plant communities occupy the entire water column, forming strata of submerged hydrophytes, overlaid by bottom-rooted emergents with floating leaves and/or stems, and by bottom-rooted emergents above the water surface (Tabosa et al 2012).…”

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

“…Specifically, strategy C is mainly to improve the competitive ability, strategy S is mainly to grow maintenance under limited resource conditions, and strategy R is mainly to cycle fast for life reproduction in suffering frequent interference [2,3]. CSR theory can not only be adopted to explain the ecological process of community integration, biodiversity maintenance, and vegetation succession [4][5][6], but also the ecosystem function productivity and community stability [7,8]. Plant survival Forests 2023, 14, 1258 2 of 14 could be reflected by ecological strategies via plant functional traits responding to environmental changes [9,10].…”