Abstract
Bryophyte communities can exhibit similar structural and taxonomic diversity as vascular plant communities, just at a smaller scale. Whether the physiological diversity can be similarly diverse, and whether it can explain local abundance patterns is unknown, due to a lack of community‐wide studies of physiological traits. This study re‐analyzed data on photosynthesis‐related traits (including the nitrogen, phosphorus and chlorophyll concentrations, photosynthetic capacities, and photosynthetic nutrient use efficiencies) of 27 bryophyte species in a subalpine old‐growth fir forest on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. We explored differences between taxonomic groups and hypothesized that the most abundant bryophyte species had physiological advantages relative to other subdominant species. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to summarize the differences among species and trait values of the most abundant and other co‐occurring subdominant species. Species from the Polytrichaceae were separated out on both PCA axes, indicating their high chlorophyll concentrations and photosynthetic capacities (axis 1) and relatively high‐light requirements (axis 2). Mniaceae species also had relatively high photosynthetic capacities, but their light saturation points were low. In contrast, Racomitrium joseph‐hookeri and Lepidozia reptans, two species with a high shoot mass per area, had high‐light requirements and low nutrient and chlorophyll concentrations and photosynthetic capacities. The nutrient concentrations, photosynthetic capacities, and photosynthetic nutrient use efficiencies of the most abundant bryophyte species did not differ from co‐occurring subdominant species. Our research confirms the links between the photosynthesis‐related traits and adaptation strategies of bryophytes. However, species relative abundance was not related to these traits.
Highlights
There are more than 25,000 bryophyte species in the world (Crum, 2001), their importance and functions in ecosystems are often underestimated or neglected because of their small size
Comparisons of physiological traits of different bryophyte species living in the the same community can help to elucidate their different ecological functions, understand the resource use of the whole community, and contributes to a better prediction of community structure dynamics (Bona, Fyles, Shaw, & Kurz, 2013; Gunnarsson, Malmer, & Rydin, 2002; Modrzyński, Chmura, & Tjoelker, 2015)
There were no significant differences in photosynthesis-related functional traits between the mean values of the most abundant species and other bryophytes in the studied subalpine forest (Figure 1b, Table 3, Appendix S3–S5)
Summary
There are more than 25,000 bryophyte species in the world (Crum, 2001), their importance and functions in ecosystems are often underestimated or neglected because of their small size. Thereby, growth form appears to be an important factor, determining the growth potential through controlling hydration dynamics and determining competitive strengths through the potential to overgrow other species (Bates, 1998; Belote & Weltzin, 2006; Wang et al, 2016) The latter appears to be important in explaining the high abundance of some larger pleurocarpous forest-floor species. Previous studies have suggested that species abundance in a particular habitat is likely coupled with physiological advantages given local conditions, for example, high Chlmass and photosynthetic capacities in light-limited environments (Glime, 2007; Hájek, Tuittila, Ilomets, & Laiho, 2009). Whether such advantages can help explain species relative abundances within communities is unknown. We hypothesized that the most abundant species should have higher nutrient concentrations, photosynthetic capacities, and/or photosynthetic nutrient use efficiencies compared to other bryophytes
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