scholarly journals Exploring How Functional Traits Modulate Species Response to Topography in Baxian Mountain, North China

Author(s):  
Lili Tang ◽  
William Morris ◽  
Mei Zhang ◽  
Fuchen Shi ◽  
Peter Vesk

Abstract The associations between functional traits and species response to environments have aroused more and more ecologists’ interest and can provide insights into understanding and explaining how plants respond to the environment. Here, we applied a hierarchical generalized linear model to quantifying the role of functional traits in plants response to topography. Functional traits data, including specific leaf area, maximum height, seed mass and stem wood density, together with elevation, aspect and slope were used in the model. In our results, species response to elevation and aspect were modulated by maximum height and seed mass. Shorter-statured tree species had a more positive response than taller ones to an increase in elevation. Compared to light-seeded trees, heavy-seeded trees responded more positively to more southerly aspects where the soil was drier. In this study, the roles of maximum height and seed mass in determining species distribution along elevation and aspect gradients were highlighted respectively where plants are confronted with low-temperature and soil moisture deficit conditions. This work contributes to the understanding of how traits may be associated with species responses along mesoscale environmental gradients.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Charlotte Bopp ◽  
Elena Kazakou ◽  
Aurelie Metay ◽  
Guillaume Fried

Winegrowers have diversified their weed management practices over the last two decades changing the structure and the composition of weed communities. Complementary to taxonomic studies, trait-based approaches are promising ways for a better understanding of weed communities responses to environmental and agronomic filters. In the present study, the impacts of climate, soil characteristics, seasons and weed management practices (chemical weeding, tillage and mowing) were assessed on weed communities from 46 plots in three French wine-growing regions (Champagne, Languedoc and Rhone valley). These agro-environmental gradients structuring weed communities according to their combinations of traits were highlighted using multivariate analysis (RLQ). The impacts of these filters on Community Weighted Means (CWM) and Community Weighted Variance (CWV) of weed communities were analysed using mixed and null modelling. Our results showed that spatio-temporal and weed management practices variables explained from 13% to 48% of the total variance of CWM (specific leaf area, maximum height, seed mass, flowering onset and duration and lateral spread). Region, seasonality and management practices explained 53%, 28% and 19% of CWM marginal variance, respectively. Weed management impacted CWM and CWV through two main gradients: (i) a soil disturbance gradient with high mechanical disturbance of soil in tilled plots and low mechanical disturbance in chemically weeded plots and (ii) a vegetation cover gradient with high vegetation abundance in mowed plots compared to more bare soils in tilled and chemically weeded plots. In Languedoc, chemical weeding filtered weed communities with ruderal strategy trait values (low seed mass, small-stature) while mowed communities were more competitive (higher seed mass, higher stature and lower SLA). In Languedoc and Champagne, tillage favoured communities with high seed mass that increases the viability of buried seeds and high lateral spread values associated to the ability to resprout after tillage. This study demonstrated that trait-based approaches can be successfully applied to perennial cropping systems such as vineyards, in order to understand community assembly to better guide weed management practices.


1995 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 1027 ◽  
Author(s):  
FP Smith ◽  
PS Cocks ◽  
MA Ewing

Cluster clover is a widely distributed and ecologically successful introduced legume in southern Australia. In an attempt to understand the role of genetic variation in this success, morphological and physiological traits were measured in 94 accessions from southern Australia and 6 from the Mediterranean basin. Flowering time ranged from 105 to 185 days after sowing, but was not strongly correlated with annual rainfall or length of growing season at the site of collection. Variation in other traits partitioned the populations into two morphs which, apart from flowering time and leaf marker, were largely homogeneous. The morphs differed significantly in floret number per inflorescence (22 v. 32-37) and seed mass (379 8g v. 523 8g), had different growth habits and strong within-morph associations between leaf markers and stipule and petal coloration. The morphs differed in their distributions within southern Australia and the pattern of distribution was related to summer maximum temperatures, winter minimum temperatures and spring rainfall. These results demonstrate that genetic variation has been important to the success of cluster clover and suggests that the variation is organized. The pattern of variation observed and its relationship to ecogeography is consistent with findings for other highly inbreeding species. A map of the species distribution in Western Australia is presented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 483 ◽  
pp. 118908
Author(s):  
Mizanur Rahman ◽  
Masum Billah ◽  
Md Obydur Rahman ◽  
Debit Datta ◽  
Muhammad Ahsanuzzaman ◽  
...  

Botany ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 93 (8) ◽  
pp. 529-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Bauk ◽  
Reyes Pérez-Sánchez ◽  
Sebastián R. Zeballos ◽  
M. Laura Las Peñas ◽  
Joel Flores ◽  
...  

Several studies reported a negative relationship between altitude and seed mass. In cactus species, seed mass has been also related to seedling morphology (size and shape). Here we studied Gymnocalycium monvillei (Lem.) Pfeiff. ex Britton & Rose, a cactus species with a wide altitudinal distribution, with the main aim of analyzing how altitude affects seed mass and seedling size (height and width) and shape (globose or columnar). We collected seeds from five sites along the entire altitudinal distribution of the species in the Córdoba Mountains (sites were located between 878 and 2230 m a.s.l.), encompassing a marked climatic gradient (6 °C of mean annual temperature difference between the extreme sites). Seed mass and seedling traits were measured in the laboratory. Seedling height increased with altitude, whereas seed mass was not related to this parameter. Seedlings became more globose (reduced surface/volume ratio) with decreasing altitude. Variation in seedling shape along the altitudinal gradient may be related to the contrasting climatic conditions to which seedlings are exposed, and could account for the wide altitudinal distribution of G. monvillei. Our results highlight the importance of seedling traits in the species’ response to climatic change.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos P. Carmona ◽  
Cristina Rota ◽  
Francisco M. Azcárate ◽  
Begoña Peco

2017 ◽  
Vol 249 ◽  
pp. 215-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Peco ◽  
E. Navarro ◽  
C.P. Carmona ◽  
N.G. Medina ◽  
M.J. Marques

Crop Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 679-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suheb Mohammed ◽  
Trevis D. Huggins ◽  
Francis Beecher ◽  
Chris Chick ◽  
Padma Sengodon ◽  
...  

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
D. Scott

The different perspectives or concepts involved in developing legumes for dryland pastoral systems is commented on in relation to: N-fixation versus animal feed; root nodule bacteria requirements; large introduced legume flora compared with indigenous; species niche in relation to environmental gradients of moisture, temperature, fertility, and grazing; species adaptation along the decreasing fertility gradient from fine-root nutrient scavenging grasses, N-fixers, mycorrhiza, and proteoid roots; interaction of N- fixation with soil organic matter; establishment; determinants of pastures legume composition; and the possible role of allelopathy. Key words: dryland, environmental gradients, legumes, N-fixation, pasture composition


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