Community functional responses to soil and climate at multiple spatial scales: when does intraspecific variation...

Area of Science:

• Community Ecology
• Plant Trait Ecology
• Ecosystem Science

Background:

• Intraspecific trait variation is increasingly recognized as crucial in plant communities.
• Its role in community responses to environmental gradients remains poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze functional trait variation in early-successional plant communities across a latitudinal gradient.
• To determine the contributions of species turnover and intraspecific variation to community trait responses to environmental factors.

Main Methods:

• Studied four traits (vegetative height, leaf area, SLA, LDMC) in old fields across a 1200-km latitudinal extent.
• Assessed species turnover and intraspecific variation's roles in functional dissimilarity and environmental responses.
• Examined responses to edaphic and climatic factors at multiple spatial scales.

Main Results:

• Both species turnover and intraspecific variation drive community trait variation and environmental responses, with turnover being dominant overall.
• Intraspecific variation's importance decreased with geographic and environmental distance for SLA and leaf area.
• Intraspecific variation was more critical for vegetative height and responses to edaphic factors than climatic ones.

Conclusions:

• Intraspecific variation plays a key role in community trait responses, particularly at fine spatial scales and along edaphic gradients.
• Species turnover dominates community trait responses at broad spatial scales and along climatic gradients.
• Understanding intraspecific variation is vital for predicting plant community dynamics and responses to environmental change.