Abstract
One of the key hypothesized drivers of community assembly and dynamics is environmental filtering, where environmental stress limits species migration and survival as a result of functional trait convergence. Whereas most such studies focus on large-scale variation in functional traits along a single-factor environmental gradient, the mutual effects of small-scale multiple environmental filtering remain unclear. Furthermore, it has rarely been tested whether the combined effect of aridity and salinity on local dryland vegetation constrains the patterns of functional traits and phylogenetic structures. Across an 8-km long transect in the arid northwest of China, we assessed the role of environmental filtering in shaping community assemblages by testing the hypotheses that aridity and salinity stresses, interspecific competition and phylogenetic structures constrained functional diversity in the local dryland vegetation. Our results showed that aridity significantly increased convergence of the maximum plant height, specific leaf area, leaf area and leaf nitrogen concentration. However, salinity significantly promoted the convergence of only leaf area and leaf nitrogen concentration. In addition, interspecific competition increased the convergence of the maximum plant height and leaf area. Leaf area converged significantly due to phylogenetic history. Aridity filtering, but not salinity filtering, obviously increased the clustering of phylogenetic structure. Interspecific competition and phylogenetic structure had weak effects on functional diversity in local dryland vegetation. In conclusion, compared with salinity filtering, aridity filtering was more important in reducing phylogenetic diversity in dryland vegetation.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.