Abstract
Terricolous lichen communities in lowlands occur especially in open dry habitats. Such communities are often dominated by species of the genus Cladonia, which are very variable in morphology, reproduction strategies, and secondary metabolites. In this work, we investigated traits-environment relationships considering vegetation dynamics, substrate pH, disturbance, and climate. A total of 122 plots were surveyed in 41 acidic dry grasslands in the western Po Plain (Northern Italy). Relationships between Cladonia traits and environmental variables were investigated by means of a model-based Fourth Corner Analysis. Thallus morphology and metabolites responded to vegetation dynamics, substrate pH, disturbance, and climate, whereas reproduction strategies responded only to vegetation dynamics. Traits’ correlations with vegetation dynamics elucidate their colonization patterns in open dry habitats or suggest biotic interactions with bryophytes and vascular plants. In addition, correlations between metabolites and environmental factors support interpretations of their ecological roles. Our results also stress the importance of studying traits’ relationships with climatic factors as an alert towards lichen reactions to climate change.
Highlights
The analysis of functional traits to explore species’ responses to environmental factors is increasingly applied to lichens [1,2]
This study aims at exploring the relationships between Cladonia functional traits and environmental factors that drive community composition in lowland acidic dry grasslands
Significant relationships were found between morphological traits and vegetation dynamics, substrate features, disturbance, and climate (Figure 2)
Summary
The analysis of functional traits to explore species’ responses to environmental factors is increasingly applied to lichens [1,2]. Terricolous lichen communities are often dominated by species of the genus Cladonia. In this genus, the thallus is composed of two parts: a basal primary thallus and a secondary thallus with a very variable morphology across species [11,12,13]. The thallus is composed of two parts: a basal primary thallus and a secondary thallus with a very variable morphology across species [11,12,13] This high variability leads to a range of possible morphological combinations that have been almost overlooked in previous literature (e.g., [6,7,14,15]).
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