Shifting trait coordination along a soil‐moisture‐nutrient gradient in tropical forests

Abstract Soil nutrients and water availability are strong drivers of tropical tree species distribution across scales. However, the physiological mechanisms underlying environmental filtering along these gradients remain incompletely understood. Previous studies mostly focused on univariate variation in structural traits, but a more integrative approach combining multiple physiological traits is needed to fully portray species functional strategies. We measured nine leaf functional traits related to trees' resource capture and hydraulic strategies for 552 individuals belonging to 21 tropical tree species across an environmental gradient in Amazonian forests. Our sampling included generalist and specialist species from terra firme (TF) and seasonally flooded (SF) forests. We tested the influence of the topographic wetness index, a proxy for soil moisture and nutrient gradients, on each trait separately and on the trait integration through multivariate indices computed from the eigenvalues of a principal component analysis on the traits of the species. Finally, we evaluated intraspecific trait variability (ITV) for generalists and specialists by calculating the coefficient of variation for each trait. Results showed that (1) the environment had a greater influence on trait syndromes than single trait variation. Moreover, (2) SF specialist species expressed a stronger leaf trait coordination than TF specialist species. Furthermore, (3) the ability of generalist species to occupy a broader range of environments was not reflected by a larger ITV than specialist species but by the capacity to change trait coordination across environments. Our work highlights the need to investigate functional strategies as multidimensional syndromes in physiological trait space to fully understand and predict species distribution along environmental gradients. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Publication Details

Journal
Functional Ecology
Published
2024-10-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14679
Citations
11
Primary Topic
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
7.60

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article

Shifting trait coordination along a soil‐moisture‐nutrient gradient in tropical forests

Isabelle Maréchaux, Jean‐Yves Goret, Jónathan Heras, Jeanne Clément et al.
11 citations
Functional Ecology
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
7.60
article

Shifting trait coordination along a soil‐moisture‐nutrient gradient in tropical forests

Isabelle Maréchaux, Jean‐Yves Goret, Jónathan Heras, Jeanne Clément, Ghislain Vieilledent, Jason Vleminckx, Jocelyn Cazal, Claire Fortunel, Ángela Casado-García, Christopher Baraloto, Heidy Schimann, Marion Boisseaux, Clément Stahl, Christine Scoffoni, Géraldine Derroire, Gaëlle Jaouen, Sabrina Coste, Benoît Burban, Daniela Nemetschek
article en
11 citations

Abstract

Abstract Soil nutrients and water availability are strong drivers of tropical tree species distribution across scales. However, the physiological mechanisms underlying environmental filtering along these gradients remain incompletely understood. Previous studies mostly focused on univariate variation in structural traits, but a more integrative approach combining multiple physiological traits is needed to fully portray species functional strategies. We measured nine leaf functional traits related to trees' resource capture and hydraulic strategies for 552 individuals belonging to 21 tropical tree species across an environmental gradient in Amazonian forests. Our sampling included generalist and specialist species from terra firme (TF) and seasonally flooded (SF) forests. We tested the influence of the topographic wetness index, a proxy for soil moisture and nutrient gradients, on each trait separately and on the trait integration through multivariate indices computed from the eigenvalues of a principal component analysis on the traits of the species. Finally, we evaluated intraspecific trait variability (ITV) for generalists and specialists by calculating the coefficient of variation for each trait. Results showed that (1) the environment had a greater influence on trait syndromes than single trait variation. Moreover, (2) SF specialist species expressed a stronger leaf trait coordination than TF specialist species. Furthermore, (3) the ability of generalist species to occupy a broader range of environments was not reflected by a larger ITV than specialist species but by the capacity to change trait coordination across environments. Our work highlights the need to investigate functional strategies as multidimensional syndromes in physiological trait space to fully understand and predict species distribution along environmental gradients. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Functional EcologyVol. 39(1)
CEA CESTA (FR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (FR), Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE), Universidad de La Rioja (ES), Florida International University (US), Université de Montpellier (FR), AgroParisTech (FR), California State University Los Angeles (US), Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR), UMR Botanique et Modélisation de l’Architecture des Plantes et des végétations (FR), UMR BIOdiversity, GEnes & Communities (FR), Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane (GF), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
7.60
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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