Abstract
Current trends emphasize the importance of the examination of the functional composition of lichens, which may provide information on the species realized niche diversity and community assembly processes, thus enabling one to understand the specific adaptations of lichens and their interaction with the environment. We analyzed the distribution and specialization of diverse morphological, anatomical and chemical (lichen secondary metabolites) traits in lichen communities in a close-to-natural forest of lowland Europe. We considered these traits in relation to three levels of forest ecosystem organization: forest communities, phorophyte species and substrates, in order to recognize the specialization of functional traits to different levels of the forest complexity. Traits related to the sexual reproduction of mycobionts (i.e., ascomata types: lecanoroid apothecia, lecideoid apothecia, arthonioid apothecia, lirellate apothecia, stalked apothecia and perithecia) and asexual reproduction of mycobionts (pycnidia, hyphophores and sporodochia) demonstrated the highest specialization to type of substrate, tree species and forest community. Thallus type (foliose, fruticose, crustose and leprose thalli), ascospore dark pigmentation and asexual reproduction by lichenized diaspores (soredia and isidia) revealed the lowest specialization to tree species and substrate, as well as to forest community. Results indicate that lichen functional trait assemblage distribution should not only be considered at the level of differences in the internal structure of the analyzed forest communities (e.g., higher number of diverse substrates or tree species) but also studied in relation to specific habitat conditions (insolation, moisture, temperature, eutrophication) that are characteristic of a particular forest community. Our work contributes to the understanding of the role of the forest structure in shaping lichen functional trait composition, as well as enhancing our knowledge on community assembly rules of lichen species.
Highlights
Lichens are important and widely applied environmental indicators of the naturalness and quality of the environment, used inter alia to determine changes in forest ecosystems caused by management [1,2,3]
We discovered a similar number of interactions in the networks of lichen traits, at each studied level of ecosystem organization
Whilst considering the composition of functional traits at the tree species level, we revealed a compositional continuum of traits among the studied phorophytes (GOF = 0.011; stress values (SV) = 0.080)
Summary
Lichens are important and widely applied environmental indicators of the naturalness and quality of the environment, used inter alia to determine changes in forest ecosystems caused by management [1,2,3]. They are used to select the most valuable habitats for the protection of all biodiversity [4,5,6,7]. Application of the functional diversity approach in lichenological studies provides more mechanistic insights into the importance of environmental factors driving lichen biodiversity changes more accurately than the traditional approach based exclusively on species richness. E.g., in natural forests or in forests with low human influence, may be an indication of the high microhabitat diversity available for lichens, while low functional diversity may express simplification of lichen community composition due to habitat homogenization, e.g., in intensively managed stands [3,10]
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