Hierarchical effects of environmental filters on the functional structure of plant communities: a case study in the French Alps
Hierarchical effects of environmental filters on the functional structure of plant communities: a case study in the French Alps
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07438.x
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发表时间：
2013-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
5.9
通讯作者：
Thuiller, Wilfried
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
de Bello, Francesco;Lavorel, Sandra;Thuiller, Wilfried
了解环境对生态群落功能结构的影响对于预测生物多样性对全球变化驱动因素的反应至关重要。生态学理论认为，多种环境因素通过逐渐将物种从区域物种池中过滤到当地社区来塑造当地物种组合。这些连续的过滤器应该以不同的方式影响社区功能结构的各个组成部分。在法国阿尔卑斯山吉萨内谷地的82个植被样地中，测试了多种环境过滤器对植物功能性状结构的各种指标(即群落加权平均性状)和功能性状多样性成分(即功能丰富度、均匀度和发散度)的相对影响。对于211个抽样物种，我们测量了已知的能够捕捉维管植物物种生态策略的关键方面的特征，即叶片特征、株高和种子质量(LHS)。综合信息论框架和基于零模型的重采样技术被用来检验各种环境效应。功能结构的特定群落成分对不同的环境梯度的反应是不同的，特别是关于环境因素似乎作用的空间尺度。在大空间尺度(如温度)作用的环境因子主要影响群落加权平均特征值，而细尺度因子(地形和土壤特性)主要影响功能多样性和特征值在优势种之间的分布。我们的结果强调了塑造当地物种组合的生态力量的层次性：具有主要作用的大规模环境过滤器，即选择适合某一地点的物种池，然后在更精细的尺度上过滤，确定物种丰富度和当地物种共存。这表明，功能群落结构的不同组成部分对环境变化的反应是不同的，因此预测植物群落的反应将需要一个分层的多方面的方法。
Understanding the influence of the environment on the functional structure of ecological communities is essential to predict the response of biodiversity to global change drivers. Ecological theory suggests that multiple environmental factors shape local species assemblages by progressively filtering species from the regional species pool to local communities. These successive filters should influence the various components of community functional structure in different ways. In this paper, we tested the relative influence of multiple environmental filters on various metrics of plant functional trait structure (i.e. community weighted mean trait' and components of functional trait diversity, i.e. functional richness, evenness and divergence) in 82 vegetation plots in the Guisane Valley, French Alps. For the 211 sampled species we measured traits known to capture key aspects of ecological strategies amongst vascular plant species, i.e. leaf traits, plant height and seed mass (LHS). A comprehensive information theory framework, together with null model based resampling techniques, was used to test the various environmental effects. Particular community components of functional structure responded differently to various environmental gradients, especially concerning the spatial scale at which the environmental factors seem to operate. Environmental factors acting at a large spatial scale (e.g. temperature) were found to predominantly shape community weighted mean trait values, while fine-scale factors (topography and soil characteristics) mostly influenced functional diversity and the distribution of trait values among the dominant species. Our results emphasize the hierarchical nature of ecological forces shaping local species assemblage: large-scale environmental filters having a primary effect, i.e. selecting the pool of species adapted to a site, and then filters at finer scales determining species abundances and local species coexistence. This suggests that different components of functional community structure will respond differently to environmental change, so that predicting plant community responses will require a hierarchical multi-facet approach.