Shifts and Trade‐Offs of Ecological Strategy Associated With Species Diversity and Functional Traits During Vegetation Succession Progress in Karst Ecosystem

The CSR framework reflects the ecological strategies of competition (C), stress tolerance (S), and ruderal (R) that plants employ to adapt to disturbances. This framework provides a robust foundation for exploring community assembly and successional dynamics within degraded ecosystems such as karst. However, the influence of functional traits and species diversity on ecological strategic trade-offs during vegetation succession remains unclear. The space-for-time substitution method was employed to examine the influence of functional traits and species diversity on ecological strategic trade-offs during vegetation succession. Five successional stages were identified in the karst community: herb, herb-shrub transition, shrubbery, shrub-tree transition, and Tree forest. For each stage, five 100 m × 100 m plots were established, with each plot containing four 10 m × 10 m subplots, resulting in a total of 25 plots and 100 subplots. Plant leaf traits from 2503 individuals of 160 woody species were measured and quantified for CSR components at individual and community levels. The redundancy analysis (RDA), Mantel tests, and a random forest model were applied to explore associations in CSR strategies, diversity, and functional traits. Our results revealed a strategic trade-off, with a shift from the dominance of the S strategy to increased contributions from C and R strategies at both individual and community levels as vegetation succession progressed. This transition was closely associated with woody species diversity and leaf macronutrient traits of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. RDA and Mantel test results further indicated that Hill numbers (<i>q</i> = 0, <i>q</i> = 1), leaf water content, and leaf carbon content were key determinants of ecological strategy shifts. Additionally, the random forest model identified soil pH as the strongest predictor of the C strategy, whereas Hill number (<i>q</i> = 0) was the primary determinant of S and R strategies. In conclusion, the dominance of the S strategy in the early successional stages gradually shifted toward C and R strategies during succession progress. There were strategic trade-offs of CSR associated with species diversity and leaf functional traits, embodied in S relative to C and R strategies.