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CSR analysis of plant functional types in highly diverse tropical grasslands of harsh environments

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Abstract

The classification of plant species according to the CSR ecological strategy scheme has been proposed as a common language that allows comparison among species, communities, and floras. Although several studies on European continent have demonstrated a consistent association between CSR strategies and key ecosystem processes, studies of this type are still lacking in other ecoregions worldwide. For the first time, the CSR strategy scheme is applied in a tropical plant community. In a Brazilian mountain grassland ecosystem characterized by both high biodiversity and environmental stress, we sampled various functional traits of 48 herbaceous species in stony and sandy grasslands, and evaluated the relationship between CSR strategies and functional traits with several environmental parameters. The extremely infertile soils in the two studied habitats may have acted as a major environmental filter leading to a clear predominance of the stress-tolerant strategy in both communities. However, fine-scale environmental differences between the two communities resulted in the filtering of distinct functional trait values. The sites with coarser soil texture, lower percentage of plant cover and (paradoxically) higher mineral nutrient concentrations favored plants with narrower leaves, higher stress tolerance, lower competitiveness, and higher sclerophylly (i.e., lower specific leaf area and higher leaf dry matter content). The comparison between the functional character of stony and sandy communities evidenced the influence of soil texture and water availability in the environmental filtering. This study highlighted the validity of the CSR classification outside the temperate region where it was originally developed and corroborated.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge S. Pierce for sharing perspectives and kindly answer many questions about CSR theory. We also thank F.A.O. Silveira, G.E. Overbeck and two anonymous reviewers for critical comments on early versions of the manuscript and P.L. Viana, B. Loeuille, R. Mello-Silva, L. Echternacht, N.O.M. Furtado, and F.A.O. Silveira for the botanical identifications. We thank Reserva Natural Vellozia for logistic support and Pró Reitoria de Pesquisa da UFMG, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 163020/2013-2, 141696/2009-5, 482720/2012, 403781/2012-4, 457519/2012-6, 303352/2010-8, 561883/2010-6, 563304/2009-3, 558250/2009-2, 476178/2008-8), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG APQ-04105-10, 03199-13) and FAPEMIG/FAPESP/FAPESPA/VALE S.A (RDP-00048-10) for financial supports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecologia Evolutiva e Biodiversidade/DBG, ICB/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

    Daniel Negreiros, Soizig Le Stradic, G. Wilson Fernandes & Henrique C. Rennó

  2. UMR CNRS/IRD 7263/237 IMBE, Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie, Université d’Avignon et des Pays de Vaucluse, IUT, Agroparc, BP 61207, 84 911, Avignon cedex 9, France

    Soizig Le Stradic

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  1. Daniel Negreiros
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  4. Henrique C. Rennó
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Correspondence to G. Wilson Fernandes.

Additional information

Communicated by Chris Lusk.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

11258_2014_302_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Online Resource 1 Functional traits of 48 herbaceous species sampled in the stony and sandy grasslands of the Serra do Cipó, MG, Brazil (PDF 37 kb)

Online Resource 2 Influence of exclusive and rare species in the detection of environmental filtering (PDF 1187 kb)

Online Resource 3 Validation of the CSR classification for a tropical grassland vegetation (PDF 804 kb)

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Negreiros, D., Le Stradic, S., Fernandes, G.W. et al. CSR analysis of plant functional types in highly diverse tropical grasslands of harsh environments. Plant Ecol 215, 379–388 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-014-0302-6

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