CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal; Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, 4099-002 Porto, Portugal; BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal.
Water Research Institute and School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, The Sir Martin Evans Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3AX, United Kingdom.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Feb 20;860:160549. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160549. Epub 2022 Nov 29.
Environmental changes and biodiversity loss have emphasized the need to understand how communities affect ecosystem functioning and services. In riparian ecosystems, integrative, generalizable, broad-scale models of ecosystem functioning are still required to fulfill this need. However, few studies have explored the links between functional traits, ecosystem functions, and the services of riparian vegetation. Here we adapt the response-effect trait framework to link drivers, traits, ecosystem functions, and services in riparian ecosystems and assess ecosystem functioning sensitivity to environmental changes. The response-effect trait framework distinguishes between traits related to responses to the environment (response traits) and effects on ecosystem functioning (effect traits). The framework predicts that if response and effect traits are tightly linked, shifts in environmental drivers may alter communities' traits and ecosystem functioning. We adapted the response-effect trait framework for riparian plant communities and used it to assess the overlap between response and effect traits. We tested for correlation among traits identified in the framework and for community functional responses to climatic, topographic, soil, and land cover factors using riparian plant communities along a Temperate-Mediterranean climate gradient in North Portugal. We found a high overlap between response and effect traits, with seven out of thirteen traits identified as both response and effect. Additionally, we found trait linkages in four groups of positively correlated community mean traits. Precipitation and aridity were the most predictive drivers of community functional structure, and life form and leaf area were the most responsive traits. Overall, our findings suggest riparian plant communities are likely to propagate the effects of environmental changes to ecosystem functioning and services, affecting several regulation ecosystem services. This work highlights the sensitivity of riparian ecosystems to environmental changes and how it can affect ecosystem services. Similar functional approaches can be useful for adaptive ecosystem management to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services.
环境变化和生物多样性丧失强调了需要了解群落如何影响生态系统功能和服务。在河岸生态系统中，仍然需要综合、可推广、广泛尺度的生态系统功能模型来满足这一需求。然而，很少有研究探讨功能特征、生态系统功能和河岸植被服务之间的联系。在这里，我们采用响应-效应特征框架来连接河岸生态系统中的驱动因素、特征、生态系统功能和服务，并评估生态系统功能对环境变化的敏感性。响应-效应特征框架区分了与对环境的响应（响应特征）和对生态系统功能的影响（效应特征）有关的特征。该框架预测，如果响应和效应特征紧密相关，环境驱动因素的变化可能会改变群落的特征和生态系统功能。我们对响应-效应特征框架进行了适应性调整，用于评估响应和效应特征之间的重叠程度。我们使用葡萄牙北部温带-地中海气候梯度上的河岸植物群落，测试了框架中确定的特征之间的相关性以及群落对气候、地形、土壤和土地覆盖因素的功能响应。我们发现，响应特征和效应特征之间存在很高的重叠度，有 13 个特征中有 7 个既是响应特征也是效应特征。此外，我们还发现了四个正相关群落平均特征组之间的特征联系。降水和干旱是群落功能结构最具预测性的驱动因素，而生活型和叶面积是最敏感的特征。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，河岸植物群落很可能会将环境变化的影响传递到生态系统功能和服务中，从而影响到几个调节生态系统服务。这项工作强调了河岸生态系统对环境变化的敏感性，以及它如何影响生态系统服务。类似的功能方法对于适应性生态系统管理以维持生物多样性和生态系统服务是有用的。
