scholarly journals Understanding Community Assembly Based on Functional Traits, Ontogenetic Stages, Habitat Types and Spatial Scales in a Subtropical Forest

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanpeng Li ◽  
Yue Bin ◽  
Han Xu ◽  
Yunlong Ni ◽  
Ruyun Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Area ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Habitat Types ◽  
Ontogenetic Stages ◽  
Dispersion Patterns ◽  
Natural Communities

Community assembly in natural communities is commonly explained by stochastic and niche-based processes such as environmental filtering and biotic interactions. Many studies have inferred the importance of these processes using a trait-based approach, however, there are still unknowns around what factors affect the importance of different assembly processes in natural communities. In this study, the trait dispersion patterns of 134 species were examined across different functional traits, habitat types, ontogenetic stages and spatial scales from a 20-ha Dinghushan Forest Dynamic Plot in China. The results showed that (1) functional traits related to productivity such as specific leaf area and leaf area mainly showed functional clustering, indicating these two functional traits were more affected by environmental filtering. However, trait dispersion patterns depended on more than the ecological significances of functional traits. For example, trait dispersions of leaf dry matter content, leaf thickness and maximum height did not show consistent patterns across habitat types and ontogenetic stages, suggesting more complex mechanisms may operate on these traits; (2) the trait dispersion varied with the habitat types and ontogenetic stages. Specifically, we found that habitat types only affected the strength of trait dispersions for all the five traits, but ontogenetic stages influenced both the strength and direction of trait dispersions, which depended on the traits selected; (3) the relative importance of soil, topography and space to trait dispersion varied with ontogenetic stages. Topography and space were more important for trait dispersion of saplings but soil was more important for trait dispersion of adults; (4) biotic interactions dominated community assembly at smaller spatial scales but environmental filtering dominated community assembly at larger spatial scales. Overall, the results highlight the importance of functional traits, habitat types, ontogenetic stages and spatial scales to community assembly in natural communities.

scholarly journals Environmental Filtering Influences Functional Community Assembly of Epibenthic Communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Sutton ◽  
Franz J. Mueter ◽  
Bodil A. Bluhm ◽  
Katrin Iken
Keyword(s):  
Community Assembly ◽  
Chukchi Sea ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Beaufort Sea ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Functional Community ◽  
Trait Convergence ◽  
High Trait ◽  
Epibenthic Communities

Community assembly theory states that species assemble non-randomly as a result of dispersal limitation, biotic interactions, and environmental filtering. Strong environmental filtering likely leads to local assemblages that are similar in their functional trait composition (high trait convergence) while functional trait composition will be less similar (high trait divergence) under weaker environmental filters. We used two Arctic shelves as case studies to examine the relationship between functional community assembly and environmental filtering using the geographically close but functionally and environmentally dissimilar epibenthic communities on the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea shelves. Environmental drivers were compared to functional trait composition and to trait convergence within each shelf. Functional composition in the Chukchi Sea was more strongly correlated with environmental gradients compared to the Beaufort Sea, as shown by a combination of RLQ and fourth corner analyses and community-weighted mean redundancy analyses. In the Chukchi Sea, epibenthic functional composition, particularly body size, reproductive strategy, and several behavioral traits (i.e., feeding habit, living habit, movement), was most strongly related to gradients in percent mud and temperature while body size and larval development were most strongly related to a depth gradient in the Beaufort Sea. The stronger environmental filter in the Chukchi Sea also supported the hypothesized relationship with higher trait convergence, although this relationship was only evident at one end of the observed environmental gradient. Strong environmental filtering generally provides a challenge for biota and can be a barrier for invading species, a growing concern for the Chukchi Sea shelf communities under warming conditions. Weaker environmental filtering, such as on the Beaufort Sea shelf, generally leads to communities that are more structured by biotic interactions, and possibly representing partitioning of resources among species from intermediate disturbance levels. We provide evidence that environmental filtering can structure functional community composition, providing a baseline of how community function could be affected by stressors such as changes in environmental conditions or increased anthropogenic disturbance.

Functional traits and environmental filtering drive community assembly in a species-rich tropical system

Ecology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 386-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin Lebrija-Trejos ◽  
Eduardo A. Pérez-García ◽  
Jorge A. Meave ◽  
Frans Bongers ◽  
Lourens Poorter
Keyword(s):  
Functional Traits ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Tropical System

scholarly journals Environmental filtering by pH and soil nutrients drives community assembly in fungi at fine spatial scales

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (24) ◽  
pp. 6960-6973 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sydney I. Glassman ◽  
Ian J. Wang ◽  
Thomas D. Bruns
Keyword(s):  
Soil Nutrients ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Environmental Filtering

scholarly journals Functional volumes, niche packing and species richness: biogeographic legacies in the Congo Basin

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 191582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederik Van de Perre ◽  
Michael R. Willig ◽  
Steven J. Presley ◽  
Itoka Jean-Claude Mukinzi ◽  
Mbalitini Sylvestre Gambalemoke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Species Coexistence ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
Fundamental Goal ◽  
Vicariance Event ◽  
Lowland Forests

Understanding the determinants of species coexistence in complex and species-rich communities is a fundamental goal of ecology. Patterns of species coexistence depend on how biotic interactions and environmental filtering act over ecological and evolutionary time scales. Climatic fluctuations in lowland rainforests of the Congo Basin led to the number of vertebrate species being significantly lower in central compared with northern ecoregions of the Basin. We used null models to assess whether climatic variations affected the community assembly of shrews. A consistent limit to functional similarity of species was not related to species richness. Rather, species richness is constrained by environmental factors, and these constraints are stronger in the central lowland forests of the Congo Basin. By constraining species geographic distributions, historical effects of rainforest refugia arising from climatic fluctuations may affect contemporary species composition of local shrew communities. The Congo River represents a vicariance event that led to allopatric speciation of shrews and continues to represent a barrier to dispersal. Ultimately, the historical effects of this barrier have led to differences in the functional volume of shrew communities in northern and central ecoregions. We suggest that the analyses of community assembly can be used to identify Holocene refugia in the Congo Basin.

scholarly journals Functional Traits Plasticity of the Invasive Herb Argemone ochroleuca Sweet in Different Arid Habitats

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1268
Author(s):  
Abdulaziz M. Assaeed ◽  
Saud L. Al-Rowaily ◽  
Magdy I. El-Bana ◽  
Ahmad K. Hegazy ◽  
Basharat A. Dar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Area ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Reproductive Traits ◽  
Dry Mass ◽  
Arid Ecosystems ◽  
Habitat Types ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Root Parameters ◽  
Abandoned Fields ◽  
Noxious Weed

Understanding the strategies and mechanisms of invasive species could guide their control and management especially in arid ecosystems. This study compares the vegetative and reproductive functional traits of the invasive Mexican poppy (Argemone ochroleuca), in seven habitat types, in southwestern Saudi Arabia. The results showed that the aboveground phenological attributes such as plant height, leaf area, and leaf dry mass attained the highest values in the wadi channels, whereas these attributes attained the lowest values in the mountain ranges. Maximum specific leaf area, root parameters, and all reproductive traits were recorded in the abandoned fields. In contrast to all other habitats, populations from abandoned fields had a greater investment of resources in belowground structures, while the population growing in the wadi channels and mountain ranges habitat allocated more energy to vegetative parts. The plasticity in vegetative and reproductive resource allocation in A. ochroleuca is an important mechanism in determining its colonizing ability in different habitat types and expanding the distribution range. The present data of the functional traits of A. ochroleuca agree with the resource fluctuation hypothesis, where the plant flourished in the abandoned fields that attained the highest values of organic matter and nutrients. Therefore, the restoration of these disturbed habitats could improve the resistance toward invasion by this noxious weed.

scholarly journals Phylogenetic and functional trait-based community assembly within Pacific Cyrtandra (Gesneriaceae): evidence for clustering at multiple spatial scales

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Community Assembly ◽  
Phylogenetic Signal ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Leaf Traits ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Island Communities ◽  
Coexisting Species

Abstract Tropical rainforest communities are often characterized by a small number of species-rich genera that contribute disproportionately to the alpha diversity in these habitats. In the Pacific Basin there are nearly 200 species of Cyrtandra, most of which are white-flowered woody shrubs that are single-island endemics. Within these island communities, multiple Cyrtandra species are commonly observed to occur sympatrically in wet forest understories, forming swarms of what appear to be ecologically similar taxa. The aim of this study was to determine if communities of these plants are randomly assembled with respect to phylogenetic relatedness and traits that are ecologically relevant. Using a combination of ten functional traits and a well-resolved species phylogeny, I examined community assembly within 34 species of Cyrtandra across three Pacific archipelagoes. Coexisting species were generally found to be more closely related and more phenotypically similar than would be expected by chance. This pattern was observed at both broad (island communities) and fine (site communities) spatial scales. The retention of phylogenetic signal in floral traits and the strong influence of these traits on the observed degree of phylogenetic clustering may indicate that pollinators act as a biotic filter for closely related species of Cyrtandra. In contrast, the absence of phylogenetic signal in most leaf traits, coupled with the lower contribution of these traits to niche clustering, suggests that environmental filtering along this trait axis is minimal in the observed communities. This study supports the theory that plant communities are not randomly assembled, and instead, that niche-based processes structure biodiversity at broad and fine spatial scales in diverse congeneric species assemblages.

scholarly journals Inferring community assembly processes from functional seed trait variation along temperature gradient

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey Rosbakh ◽  
Loic Chalmandrier ◽  
Shyam Phartyal ◽  
Peter Poschlod
Keyword(s):  
Functional Traits ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Vegetative Growth ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Resource Acquisition ◽  
Seed Traits ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Vegetative Traits ◽  
Germination Traits

Assembly of plant communities has long been scrutinized through the lens of trait-based ecology. Studies generally analyze functional traits related to the vegetative growth, survival and resource acquisition and thus ignore how ecological processes may affect plants at other stages of their lifecycle, particularly when seeds disperse, persist in soil and germinate. Here, we analyzed an extensive data set of 16 traits for 167 species measured in-situ in 36 grasslands located along an elevational gradient and compared the impact of abiotic filtering, biotic interactions and dispersal on traits reflecting different trait categories: plant vegetative growth, germination, dispersal, and seed morphology. For each community, we quantified community weighted mean (CWM) and functional diversity (FD) for all traits and established their relationships to mean annual temperature. The seed traits were weakly correlated to vegetative traits and thus constituted independent axes of plant phenotypical variation that were affected differently by the ecological processes considered. Abiotic filtering impacted mostly the vegetative traits and to a lesser extent on seed germination and morphological traits. Increasing low-temperature stress towards colder sites selected for short-stature, slow-growing and frost-tolerant species that produce small quantity of smaller seeds with higher degree of dormancy, high temperature requirements for germination and comparatively low germination speed. Biotic interactions, specifically competition in the lowlands and facilitation in uplands, also filtered certain functional traits in the study communities. The benign climate in lowlands promoted plant with competitive strategies including fast growth and resource acquisition (vegetative growth traits) and early and fast germination (germination traits), whereas the effects of facilitation on the vegetative and germination traits were cancelled out by the strong abiotic filtering. The changes in the main dispersal vector from zoochory to anemochory along the gradient strongly affected the dispersal and the seed morphological trait structure of the communities. Specifically, stronger vertical turbulence and moderate warm-upwinds combined with low grazing intensity selected for light and non-round shaped seeds with lower terminal velocity and endozoochorous potential. Synthesis: We clearly demonstrate that, in addition to vegetation traits, seed traits can substantially contribute to functional structuring of plant communities along environmental gradients. Thus, the hard seed traits related to germination and dispersal are critical to detect multiple, complex community assembly rules. Consequently, such traits should be included in core lists of plant traits and, when applicable, be incorporated into analysis of community assembly.

scholarly journals Rare Microbial Taxa Emerge When Communities Collide: Freshwater and Marine Microbiome Responses to Experimental Seawater Intrusion

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer D. Rocca ◽  
Marie Simonin ◽  
Justin P. Wright ◽  
Alex Washburne ◽  
Emily Bernhardt
Keyword(s):  
Community Assembly ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Reciprocal Transplant ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Marine Communities ◽  
Rare Biosphere ◽  
And Function

AbstractWhole microbial communities regularly merge with one another, often in tandem with their environments, in a process called community coalescence. Such events allow us to address a central question in ecology – what processes shape community assembly. We used a reciprocal transplant and mixing experiment to directly and independently unravel the effects of environmental filtering and biotic interactions on microbiome success when freshwater and marine communities coalesce. The brackish treatment and community mixing resulted in strong convergence of microbiome structure and function toward the marine. Brackish exposure imposed a 96% taxa loss from freshwater and 66% loss from marine microbiomes, which was somewhat counterbalanced by the emergence of tolerant rare taxa. Community mixing further resulted in 29% and 49% loss from biotic interactions between freshwater and marine microbiomes, offset somewhat by mutualistically-assisted rare microbial taxa. Our study emphasizes the importance of the rare biosphere as a critical component of community resilience.

scholarly journals Revealing the functional traits that are linked to hidden environmental factors in community assembly

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valério D. Pillar ◽  
Francesco Maria Sabatini ◽  
Ute Jandt ◽  
Sergio Camiz ◽  
Helge Bruelheide
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Real World ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Type I Error ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Calcareous Grassland ◽  
Type I ◽  
Leaf Economics Spectrum

AbstractAimTo identify functional traits that best predict community assembly without knowing the driving environmental factors.MethodsWe propose a new method that is based on the correlation r(XY) between two matrices of potential community composition: matrix X is fuzzy-weighted by trait similarities of species, and matrix Y is derived by Beals smoothing using the probabilities of species co-occurrences. Since matrix X is based on one or more traits, r(XY) measures how well the traits used for fuzzy-weighting reflect the observed co-occurrence patterns. We developed an optimization algorithm that identifies those traits that maximize this correlation, together with an appropriate permutational test for significance. Using metacommunity data generated by a stochastic, individual-based, spatially explicit model, we assessed the type I error and the power of our method across different simulation scenarios, varying environmental filtering parameters, number of traits and trait correlation structures. We then applied the method to real-world community and trait data of dry calcareous grassland communities across Germany to identify, out of 49 traits, the combination of traits that maximizes r(XY).ResultsThe method correctly identified the relevant traits involved in the community assembly mechanisms specified in simulations. It had high power and accurate type I error and was robust against confounding aspects related to interactions between environmental factors, strength of limiting factors, and correlation among traits. In the grassland dataset, the method identified five traits that best explained community assembly. These traits reflected the size and the leaf economics spectrum, which are related to succession and resource supply, factors that may not be always measured in real-world situations.ConclusionsOur method successfully identified the relevant traits mediating community assembly driven by environmental factors which may be hidden for not being measured or accessible at the spatial or temporal scale of the study.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document