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Changes in trait and phylogenetic diversity of leaves and absorptive roots from tropical to boreal forests

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Abstract

Aims

The stress-dominance hypothesis (SDH) predicts the dominance of environmental filtering under harsh conditions and the dominance of competition in favourable habitats. Here, we aimed to assess the generality of the SDH using both leaf and absorptive root traits and phylogenetic diversity at a large scale.

Methods

We examined the changes in the trait and phylogenetic diversity of six leaf and absorptive root traits along a soil fertility gradient from tropical to boreal forests. Trait and phylogenetic convergence and divergence were tested by the null model approach.

Results

Leaf economic traits (i.e. specific leaf area and leaf nitrogen concentration) and root tissue density (RTD) exhibited a coordinated response to soil fertility gradient, shifting from convergence toward species with conservative leaf traits and low RTD under infertile condition to high trait divergence under fertile soil. Similarly, community phylogenetic structure varied from convergence to divergence along the soil fertility gradient. However, variation in other traits was not consistent with the SDH prediction.

Conclusions

The SDH depends on the trait’s ecological role, and RTD is the most consistent root trait with leaf economic traits that reflect community assembly along soil fertility gradient. These results offer a new perspective for understanding complex integration of above- and belowground assembly processes, and emphasize the importance of incorporating belowground traits and phylogenetic information into community ecology.

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Abbreviations

SLA:

Specific leaf area

LDMC:

Leaf dry matter content

LN:

Leaf nitrogen concentration

SRL:

Specific root length

RTD:

Root tissue density

RN:

Root nitrogen concentration

SDH:

Stress-dominance hypothesis

CWM:

Community-weighted mean

SES:

Standardized effect size

MPD:

Mean pairwise distance

MNTD:

Mean nearest taxon distance

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31700381), the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFC0500202, 2017YFA0604803), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017 M623252, 2018 T111101), and the Doctoral Start-up Fund of Northwest A&F University (2452016138). We thank “Functional Trait Database of Terrestrial Ecosystems in China (China_Trait)” for sharing data, further information for other materials should contact to N. He (henp@igsnrr.ac.cn). There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Ruili Wang & Shuoxin Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Qiufeng Wang, Congcong Liu, Liang Kou, Guirui Yu & Nianpeng He

  3. Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Geospatial Science, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, China

    Ning Zhao

  4. School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, Jilin, China

    Zhiwei Xu

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  1. Ruili Wang
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Correspondence to Ruili Wang.

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Wang, R., Wang, Q., Liu, C. et al. Changes in trait and phylogenetic diversity of leaves and absorptive roots from tropical to boreal forests. Plant Soil 432, 389–401 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3816-1

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