Laboratoire d'Écologie Fonctionnelle, Département de biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, J1K 2R1.
Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France.
Ecology. 2021 Sep;102(9):e03454. doi: 10.1002/ecy.3454. Epub 2021 Jul 22.
Is it possible to generalize relationships between certain plant traits and soil fertility? In particular, are there quantitative relationships between community-weighted mean (CWM) trait values of leaf dry-matter content (LDMC), specific leaf area (SLA), plant height, and Grime's competitor-stress tolerator-ruderal (CSR) strategy scores and the generalized soil fertility, F (i.e., the capacity of a soil to produce biomass when all nonsoil variables are held constant) that are generalizable across different species assemblages and geographical areas? We assessed F in 21 sites in southern Quebec and 7 sites in southern France using a previously published method based on structural equation modeling. We then determined the CWM values of LDMC, SLA, plant height, and CSR scores in the 21 Quebec sites to obtain quantitative relationships between F and these CWM traits. Using these relationships, we independently tested the generality of the trait-fertility relationships using data from French sites. The relationships between F and the CWM traits were nonlinear, but displayed the expected qualitative trends as reported in the literature. In particular, the S score and CWM LDMC decreased with increasing soil fertility, and the R score and CWM SLA increased. CWM traits were more strongly correlated to measures of F (r up to 0.48) than to measures of other soil characteristics (r up to 0.17 for nitrogen flux). Importantly, the independently tested French F -trait relationships showed no significant deviations from these quantitative relationships. Further investigation is necessary to confirm if the same trend applies to other regions and or ecosystems.
某些植物特征与土壤肥力之间是否存在普遍关系？特别是，叶片干物质含量（LDMC）、比叶面积（SLA）、植物高度和 Grime 的竞争-胁迫-耐受-杂草（CSR）策略得分的群落加权均值（CWM）值与广义土壤肥力 F（即在所有非土壤变量保持不变的情况下土壤产生生物量的能力）之间是否存在普遍关系，而这种关系是否可以推广到不同的物种组合和地理区域？我们使用先前发表的基于结构方程模型的方法，在魁北克南部的 21 个地点和法国南部的 7 个地点评估了 F。然后，我们确定了魁北克 21 个地点的 LDMC、SLA、植物高度和 CSR 得分的 CWM 值，以获得 F 与这些 CWM 特征之间的定量关系。使用这些关系，我们使用法国站点的数据独立测试了特征-肥力关系的通用性。F 与 CWM 特征之间的关系是非线性的，但表现出与文献中报道的预期定性趋势一致。特别是，S 得分和 CWM LDMC 随着土壤肥力的增加而降低，而 R 得分和 CWM SLA 增加。CWM 特征与 F（r 高达 0.48）的相关性比与其他土壤特性（r 高达 0.17 用于氮通量）更强。重要的是，独立测试的法国 F-特征关系没有表现出与这些定量关系的显著偏差。需要进一步调查以确认相同的趋势是否适用于其他地区或生态系统。
