Research Center of Forest Management Engineering of State Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China.
Faculty of Forestry and Forest Ecology, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Büsgenweg 5, D-37077, Göttingen, Germany.
New Phytol. 2023 Jul;239(1):75-86. doi: 10.1111/nph.18915. Epub 2023 Apr 18.
Trait-based approaches provide a useful framework to predict ecosystem functions under intensifying global change. However, our current understanding of trait-functioning relationships mainly relies on aboveground traits. Belowground traits (e.g. absorptive root traits) are rarely studied although these traits are related to important plant functions. We analyzed four pairs of analogous leaf and absorptive root traits of woody plants in a temperate forest and examined how these traits are coordinated at the community-level, and to what extent the trait covariation depends on local-scale environmental conditions. We then quantified the contributions of leaf and absorptive root traits and the environmental conditions in determining two important forest ecosystem functions, aboveground carbon storage, and woody biomass productivity. The results showed that both morphological trait pairs and chemical trait pairs exhibited positive correlations at the community level. Absorptive root traits show a strong response to environmental conditions compared to leaf traits. We also found that absorptive root traits were better predictors of the two forest ecosystem functions than leaf traits and environmental conditions. Our study confirms the important role of belowground traits in modulating ecosystem functions and deepens our understanding of belowground responses to changing environmental conditions.
基于特征的方法为预测在全球变化加剧的情况下生态系统功能提供了一个有用的框架。然而，我们目前对特征-功能关系的理解主要依赖于地上特征。地下特征（例如吸收根特征）很少被研究，尽管这些特征与重要的植物功能有关。我们分析了温带森林中四对木本植物的类似叶片和吸收根特征，研究了这些特征在群落水平上是如何协调的，以及特征变化在多大程度上取决于局部尺度的环境条件。然后，我们量化了叶片和吸收根特征以及环境条件在决定两个重要的森林生态系统功能（地上碳储存和木质生物质生产力）中的贡献。结果表明，在群落水平上，形态特征对和化学特征对都表现出正相关。与叶片特征相比，吸收根特征对环境条件的响应更强。我们还发现，吸收根特征比叶片特征和环境条件更能预测这两个森林生态系统功能。我们的研究证实了地下特征在调节生态系统功能方面的重要作用，并加深了我们对地下特征对环境变化响应的理解。
