The relationships among species diversity, functional diversity,
functional redundancy, and community stability are central to community
and ecosystem ecology. This paper examines plant communities at
different stages of vegetation restoration in the Guizhou karst plateau
to study the relationship among functional diversity, functional
redundancy, and stability of plant communities. The most important
results include the following. (1) Species diversity (SD), functional
redundancy (FR), and stability (STB) gradually increased with
restoration, and there were significant differences among the different
stages; functional diversity (FD) increased at first and then decreased,
and reached the highest level at the tree irrigation stage. (2) Plant
height (PLH) and specific leaf area (SLA) were functional traits that
affected the diversity and stability of the plant community, and PLH was
positively correlated with plant community diversity and stability,
while SLA was negatively correlated with plant community diversity and
stability. (3) During the community recovery, FD and FR interacted to
maintain stability. In the early and late stages of recovery, the effect
of functional redundancy on stability was greater than that of
functional diversity, but it was the opposite in the middle stages. (4)
The tree irrigation stage is the likely point at which the species
diversity of plant communities in karst areas reached saturation, and
the growth rate of functional redundancy after species diversity
saturation was greater than that before saturation.
Plant Functional Diversity Can Be Independent of Species Diversity: Observations Based on the Impact of 4-Yrs of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Additions in an Alpine Meadow
