The primacy of species turnover over intraspecific variation in the environmental filtering of understory ferns
Our results highlight two key insights: (1) the understory fern community responds to environmental filters primarily through species turnover (compositional shifts) rather than widespread intraspecific trait variation; (2) soil phosphorus and forest structure act as critical filters that together shape community-level functional traits of ferns.
Authors
- Zemei ZHENG
- Yuhan Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5552-3317)
- Zhenzhen Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9885-7453)
- Shan Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8297-0099)
- Heming Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6873-4735)
- Xihua Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9454-5775)
- Qingsong Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5415-9593)
- Guochun Shen
Institutions
- Shanghai Chenshan Plant Science Research Center (CN)
- East China Normal University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Frontiers in Plant Science
- Published
- 2026-02-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2026.1779523
- Primary Topic
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China