Disentangling the Contributions of Plant Taxonomic and Functional Diversities in Shaping Aboveground Biomass of a Restored Forest Landscape in Southern China.

Md Abu Hanif,Qingshui Yu,Xingquan Rao,Weijun Shen

doi:10.3390/plants8120612

Abstract

Restoration is essential for supporting key ecosystem functions such as aboveground biomass production. However, the relative importance of functional versus taxonomic diversity in predicting aboveground biomass during restoration is poorly studied. Here, we used a trait-based approach to test for the importance of multiple plant diversity attributes in regulating aboveground biomass in a 30-years-old restored subtropical forest in southern China. We show that both taxonomic and functional diversities are significant and positive regulators of aboveground biomass; however, functional diversity (FD) was more important than taxonomic diversity (species richness) in controlling aboveground biomass. FD had the strongest direct effect on aboveground biomass compared with species richness, soil nutrients, and community weighted mean (CWM) traits. Our results further indicate that leaf and root morphological traits and traits related to the nutrient content in plant tissues represent the existence of a leaf and root economic spectrum, and the acquisitive resource use strategy influenced aboveground biomass. Our results suggest that both taxonomic and FD play a role in shaping aboveground biomass, but FD is more important in supporting aboveground biomass in this type of environments. These results imply that enhancing FD is important to restoring and managing degraded forest landscapes.

Highlights

Forest ecosystems are essential for capturing atmospheric carbon, which is deposited in above- and below-ground biomass [1]
The ordinary least squares (OLS) linear regression analysis showed that aboveground biomass was significantly (p < 0.01) and positively associated with taxonomic diversity (TD) and functional diversity (FD) (Figure 2a,b)
In assessing the relative contributions of plant taxonomic and functional diversity for predicting aboveground biomass, functional diversity explains more than the taxonomic diversity

Summary

Introduction

Forest ecosystems are essential for capturing atmospheric carbon, which is deposited in above- and below-ground biomass [1]. Landscape-level distribution of aboveground biomass has been well documented [3] but the fundamental mechanisms of producing and retaining aboveground biomass, in restored forest ecosystems is less explored. Functional dispersion is one of the multidimensional indexes of FD which captures the spread of species traits from the centroid. It has been used in this article to represent FD. Our understanding of the relative importance of functional and taxonomic diversity in affecting aboveground biomass in restored woody forest ecosystems as opposed to the herbaceous grassland ecosystem is relatively understudied

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Conclusion