Chai Yongfu, Qiu Shen, Wang Kaiyue, Xu Jinshi, Guo Yaoxin, Wang Mao, Yue Ming, Wang Mingjie, Zhu Jiangang
Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China Northwest University Xi'an China.
School of Life Sciences Northwest University Xi'an China.
Ecol Evol. 2023 May 10;13(5):e10055. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10055. eCollection 2023 May.
Assessing plant diversity during community succession based on plant trait and phylogenetic features within a community (alpha scale) and among communities (beta scale) could improve our understanding of community succession mechanism. However, whether changes of community functional diversity at alpha and beta scale are structured by different traits and whether integrating plant traits and phylogeny can enhance the ability in detecting diversity pattern have not been studied in detail. Thirty plots representing different successional stages were established on the Loess Plateau of China and 15 functional traits were measured for all coexisting species. We first analyzed the functional alpha and beta diversity along succession by decomposing species trait into alpha and beta components and then integrated key traits with phylogenetic information to explore their roles in shaping species turnover during community succession. We found that functional alpha diversity increased along successional stages and was structured by morphological traits, while beta diversity decreased during succession and was more structured by stoichiometry traits. Phylogenetic alpha diversity showed congruent pattern with functional alpha diversity because of phylogenetic conservation of trait alpha components (variation within community), while beta diversity showed incongruent pattern due to phylogenetic randomness of trait beta components (variation among communities). Furthermore, only integrating relatively conserved traits (plant height and seed mass) and phylogenetic information can raise the detecting ability in assessing diversity change. Overall, our results reveal the increasing niche differentiation within community and functional convergence among communities with succession process, indicating the importance of matching traits with scale in studying community functional diversity and the asymmetry of traits and phylogeny in reflecting species ecological differences under long-term selection pressures.
基于群落内（α尺度）和群落间（β尺度）的植物性状和系统发育特征评估群落演替过程中的植物多样性，有助于我们更好地理解群落演替机制。然而，α和β尺度上群落功能多样性的变化是否由不同性状构成，以及整合植物性状和系统发育能否提高检测多样性模式的能力，尚未得到详细研究。在中国黄土高原建立了30个代表不同演替阶段的样地，并对所有共存物种测量了15个功能性状。我们首先通过将物种性状分解为α和β组分，分析了演替过程中的功能α和β多样性，然后将关键性状与系统发育信息相结合，探讨它们在群落演替过程中塑造物种更替的作用。我们发现，功能α多样性随着演替阶段的推进而增加，由形态性状构成，而β多样性在演替过程中减少，更多地由化学计量性状构成。由于性状α组分（群落内变异）的系统发育保守性，系统发育α多样性与功能α多样性呈现一致模式，而β多样性由于性状β组分（群落间变异）的系统发育随机性而呈现不一致模式。此外，只有整合相对保守的性状（株高和种子质量）和系统发育信息，才能提高评估多样性变化的检测能力。总体而言，我们的结果揭示了随着演替过程群落内生态位分化增加和群落间功能趋同，表明在研究群落功能多样性时性状与尺度匹配的重要性，以及在长期选择压力下性状和系统发育在反映物种生态差异方面的不对称性。
