The shaping role of self-organization: linking vegetation patterning, plant traits and ecosystem functioning
The shaping role of self-organization: linking vegetation patterning, plant traits and ecosystem functioning
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自组织的塑造作用：将植被格局、植物性状和生态系统功能联系起来
DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2018.2859
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发表时间：
2019
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Quan-Xing Liu
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Li-Xia Zhao;Chi Xu;Zhen-Ming Ge;Johan van de Koppel;Quan-Xing Liu
人们日益认识到自组织空间格局对生态系统功能的贡献，包括提高陆地和海洋生态系统的生产力、生态系统稳定性和物种多样性。大多数关于空间自组织影响的研究都集中在表现出规则模式的系统上。然而，在许多生态系统中有大量的模式，这些模式并不严格规则。了解这些模式是如何形成的，以及它们如何影响生态系统功能，对于自组织作为生态理论中的一个关键过程被广泛接受至关重要。在这里，利用移植实验在盐沼生态系统占主导地位的海三棱藨草，我们证明了尺度相关的反馈驱动不规则的空间格局形成的植被。田间观察和实验表明，这种自组织过程影响一系列植物性状，包括茎根比，根茎方向，根茎节数和根茎长度，并提高植被生产力。自组织盐沼植被的斑块性有利于大型底栖动物的微生境，提高了大型底栖动物的总丰度和物种丰富度的空间异质性。我们的研究结果扩展了现有的自组织概念及其对生产力和生物多样性的影响，在许多系统中观察到的空间不规则模式。我们的工作还有助于将自组织理论和基于特征的功能生态学这两个迄今为止基本上没有联系的领域联系起来。
Self-organized spatial patterns are increasingly recognized for their contribution to ecosystem functioning, in terms of enhanced productivity, ecosystem stability, and species diversity in terrestrial as well as marine ecosystems. Most studies on the impact of spatial self-organization have focused on systems that exhibit regular patterns. However, there is an abundance of patterns in many ecosystems which are not strictly regular. Understanding of how these patterns are formed and how they affect ecosystem function is crucial for the broad acceptance of self-organization as a keystone process in ecological theory. Here, using transplantation experiments in salt marsh ecosystems dominated by Scirpus mariqueter, we demonstrate that scale-dependent feedback is driving irregular spatial pattern formation of vegetation. Field observations and experiments have revealed that this self-organization process affects a range of plant traits, including shoot-to-root ratio, rhizome orientation, rhizome node number, and rhizome length, and enhances vegetation productivity. Moreover, patchiness in self-organized salt marsh vegetation can support a better microhabitat for macrobenthos, promoting their total abundance and spatial heterogeneity of species richness. Our results extend existing concepts of self-organization and its effects on productivity and biodiversity to the spatial irregular patterns that are observed in many systems. Our work also helps to link between the so-far largely unconnected fields of self-organization theory and trait-based, functional ecology.