Cerrado vegetation and global change: the role of functional types, resource availability and disturbance in regulating plant community responses to rising CO2 levels and climate warming

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Characterization of a highly biodiverse floodplain meadow using hyperspectral remote sensing within a plant functional trait framework

We assessed the potential for using optical functional types as effective markers to monitor changes in vegetation in floodplain meadows associated with changes in their local environment. Floodplain meadows are challenging ecosystems for monitoring and conservation because of their highly biodiverse nature. Our aim was to understand and explain spectral differences among key members of floodplain meadows and also characterize differences with respect to functional traits. The study was conducted on a typical floodplain meadow in UK (MG4-type, mesotrophic grassland type 4, according to British National Vegetation Classification). We compared two approaches to characterize floodplain communities using field spectroscopy. The first approach was sub-community based, in which we collected spectral signatures for species groupings indicating two distinct eco-hydrological conditions (dry and wet soil indicator species). The other approach was “species-specific”, in which we focused on the spectral reflectance of three key species found on the meadow. One herb species is a typical member of the MG4 floodplain meadow community, while the other two species, sedge and rush, represent wetland vegetation. We also monitored vegetation biophysical and functional properties as well as soil nutrients and ground water levels. We found that the vegetation classes representing meadow sub-communities could not be spectrally distinguished from each other, whereas the individual herb species was found to have a distinctly different spectral signature from the sedge and rush species. The spectral differences between these three species could be explained by their observed differences in plant biophysical parameters, as corroborated through radiative transfer model simulations. These parameters, such as leaf area index, leaf dry matter content, leaf water content, and specific leaf area, along with other functional parameters, such as maximum carboxylation capacity and leaf nitrogen content, also helped explain the species’ differences in functional dynamics. Groundwater level and soil nitrogen availability, which are important factors governing plant nutrient status, were also found to be significantly different for the herb/wetland species’ locations. The study concludes that spectrally distinguishable species, typical for a highly biodiverse site such as a floodplain meadow, could potentially be used as target species to monitor vegetation dynamics under changing environmental conditions.

Using plant functional traits and phylogenies to understand patterns of plant community assembly in a seasonal tropical forest in Lao PDR

Plant functional traits reflect different evolutionary responses to environmental variation, and among extant species determine the outcomes of interactions between plants and their environment, including other plant species. Thus, combining phylogenetic and trait-based information can be a powerful approach for understanding community assembly processes across a range of spatial scales. We used this approach to investigate tree community composition at Phou Khao Khouay National Park (18°14’-18°32’N; 102°38’- 102°59’E), Laos, where several distinct forest types occur in close proximity. The aim of our study was to examine patterns of plant community assembly across the strong environmental gradients evident at our site. We hypothesized that differences in tree community composition were being driven by an underlying gradient in soil conditions. Thus, we predicted that environmental filtering would predominate at the site and that the filtering would be strongest on sandier soil with low pH, as these are the conditions least favorable to plant growth. We surveyed eleven 0.25 ha (50x50 m) plots for all trees above 10 cm dbh (1221 individual trees, including 47 families, 70 genera and 123 species) and sampled soils in each plot. For each species in the community, we measured 11 commonly studied plant functional traits covering both the leaf and wood economic spectrum traits and we reconstructed a phylogenetic tree for 115 of the species in the community using rbcL and matK sequences downloaded from Genebank (other species were not available). Finally we compared the distribution of trait values and species at two scales (among plots and 10x10m subplots) to examine trait and phylogenetic community structures. Although there was strong evidence that an underlying soil gradient was determining patterns of species composition at the site, our results did not support the hypothesis that the environmental filtering dominated community assembly processes. For the measured plant functional traits there was no consistent pattern of trait dispersion across the site, either when traits were considered individually or when combined in a multivariate analysis. However, there was a significant correlation between the degree of phylogenetic dispersion and the first principle component axis (PCA1) for the soil parameters.Moreover, the more phylogenetically clustered plots were on sandier soils with lower pH. Hence, we suggest that the community assembly processes across our sitemay reflect the influence ofmore conserved traits that we did not measure. Nevertheless, our results are equivocal and other interpretations are possible. Our study illustrates some difficulties in combining trait and phylogenetic approaches that may result from the complexities of integrating spatial and evolutionary processes that vary at different scales.

Different-sized grazers have distinctive effects on plant functional composition of an African savannah

Grazing ungulates play a key role in many ecosystems worldwide and can form diverse assemblages, such as in African savannahs. In many of these ecosystems, present-day ungulate communities are impoverished subsets of once diverse assemblages. While we know that excluding all ungulates from grasslands can exert major effects on both the structure and composition of the vegetation, how different individual ungulate species may have contrasting effects on grassland communities remains poorly understood. Here, we performed a long-term ‘Russian doll’ grazing exclosure experiment in an African savannah to test for the effects of different size classes of grazers on grassland structure and composition. At five sites, grazer species of decreasing size class (ranging from white rhino to scrub hare) were excluded using four fence types, to experimentally create different realized grazer assemblages. The vegetation structure and the grass functional community composition were characterized in 6 different years over a 10-year period. Additionally, animal footprints were counted to quantify the abundance of different ungulate species in each treatment. We found that while vegetation height was mostly driven by total grazing pressure of all species together, ungulate community composition best explained the functional community composition of grasses. In the short term, smaller ungulate species (‘mesoherbivores’) had strongest effects on vegetation composition, by shifting communities towards dominance by species with low specific leaf area and low nutritional value. In the long term, large grazers had stronger but similar effects on the functional composition of the system. Surprisingly, the largest ‘mega-herbivore’, the white rhinoceros, did not have strong effects on the vegetation structure or composition. Synthesis. Our results support the idea that different size classes of grazers have varying effects on the functional composition of grassland plant communities. Therefore, the worldwide decline in the diversity of ungulate species is expected to have (had) major impacts on community composition and functioning of grassland ecosystems, even if total grazing pressure has remained constant, for example, due to replacement by livestock.

Global distributions of diatoms abundance, biovolume and biomass - Gridded data product (NetCDF) - Contribution to the MAREDAT World Ocean Atlas of Plankton Functional Types

This study is a first effort to compile the largest possible body of data available from different plankton databases as well as from individual published or unpublished datasets regarding diatom distribution in the world ocean. The data obtained originate from time series studies as well as spatial studies. This effort is supported by the Marine Ecosystem Data (MAREDAT) project, which aims at building consistent data sets for the main PFTs (Plankton Functional Types) in order to help validate biogeochemical ocean models by using converted C biomass from abundance data. Diatom abundance data were obtained from various research programs with the associated geolocation and date of collection, as well as with a taxonomic information ranging from group down to species. Minimum, maximum and average cell size information were mined from the literature for each taxonomic entry, and all abundance data were subsequently converted to biovolume and C biomass using the same methodology.

中国东北样带孢粉-植被的定量关系及古生物群区的反演

基于中国东北样带（NECT）30个植被样方调查和表土孢粉资料，从个体、群落水平研究了孢粉－植被关系，结果表明，孢粉类型与植被关系密切，在 ＝ 0．05的显著性水平上，相关系数大于0．5;表土孢粉组合与植物群落间有较大的相似性，相似系数大于50％。采用定量描述花粉与植物关系的参数：联合指数（association）A、超代表性指数（over-representation）O、低代表性指数（under-representation）U、相关系数（correlation coefficient）C和代表性系数（representation coefficient）R等值，应用TWINSPAN分类、PCA排序和回归分析，把表土花粉类型划分为4类：具代表性类群组Group1，它们能正确反映植被;超代表性类群组Group2，它们常具有高花粉值与植被不成比例;低代表性类群组Group3，它们的花粉很难分离提取;以及低代表性类群的Group4，其花粉在土壤地层中较常见;指出一些常见花粉类型：松（Pinus）、桦（Betula）、栎（Quercus）、椴（Tilia）、槭（Acer）、榆（Ulmus）、蒿（Artemisia）、藜（Chenopodiaceae）、禾本科（Gramineae）和莎草科（Cyperaceae）的回归参数在东部森林区和西部草原区是有变化的，因此回归参数在应用于古植被恢复中要注意适用范围。 以Biomization模型为基础，根据植物的生理生态特性，定义了NECT孢粉类型的植物功能型（PETs）各种生物群区（Biome）的PFTs组合，构建了经表土孢粉检验的适用于NECT的以孢粉数据为驱动的模型框架，该模型模拟的生物群区与其化指标（气候、植物生理、土壤等）模拟划分的BIOME（Holdrige, BIOME3）是可比的，与植被类型有较好的对应性。 根据29剖面（986个样品）的孢粉数据，重建了NECT 6 kaB.P以来的生物群区。从时空二方面阐述了NECT6kaB.P以来生物群区的分布特点： （1）6ka B. P是一暖湿期，气温比现在高1～4℃，降水比现在多50％。落叶阔叶林分最广，面积最大。森林草原、落叶阔叶林、针阔混交林向西延伸最远。 （2）5ka B. P 是一降温期，气温比现在低2℃，降水多30％。有苔原、寒温带针叶林分布。 （3）4ka B. P是一暖湿期，气温比现在高1～2℃，降水比现在多50％。针阔光林和森林草原有最大分布面积。 （4）3Ka－2kaBP的气温与现代相似，降水比现在多20％左右。与4Ka B. P相比，森林和森林草原过渡带都向东移动。 （5）1Ka B. P的气温与现代相似，降水比现在多10％左右。草原向东大幅度扩张，森林分布面积减小。 （6）东部森林，中部森林草原，西部草原的分布格局的3Ka B. P基本确定，此后随着气候的不断变干冷，草原向东扩张。 （7）森林向扩张最大距离的时期发生在6Ka B. P，此时也是森林草原向西扩张最远时期。落叶阔叶林、针阔混交林、森林草原向西移动最大距离的时间是6Ka B. P，草原向西移动最远距离的时期发生在3Ka B. P。

京北农牧交错区植物功能型研究

植物功能型的研究是全球变化研究当中最重要的创新之一，作为新的研究手段，已经被广泛用来研究全球变化的影响。而关于不同植物功能型对全球变化的生理生态反应、植物功能型对全球变化的适应机制及植物功能型演变在全球变化中的作用等方面的研究报道却很少，相关方面的研究尚处于起步阶段，而这些恰恰是植物功能型研究的基本点和最终目的，尤其对于全球变化预测模型的研究具有深远的意义。因此深入开展区域环境或全球变化下植物功能型的变化和适应机制研究能为最大程度地获得全球变化对未来影响提供重要信息。 　　本研究中我们对京北农牧交错区的植物功能型（光合功能型和形态功能型）进行了研究。利用稳定性同位素判定法对锡林郭勒草原四种不同草地类型植物功能型进行了分析研究，在调查的125种维管植物中有4种C4植物，其中禾本科和藜科各有2种，C4植物约占该地区调查植物总数的3%，C3 植物为94%、CAM植物为3%。研究中发现利用稳定性同位素技术判定CAM类型存在一定的局限性，需要采用辅助实验进行补充。研究结果还表明自东向西，在草甸草原－典型草原－荒漠草原这一系列草原类型中随着降雨量的逐渐降低，植物种类组成逐渐降低，但C4/C3的比例却有升高的趋势，说明植物光合类型的组成与水分梯度相关。在相同的环境梯度下，多年生高禾草和多年生杂类草呈现显著减少的趋势;而一年生杂类草，多年生矮禾草、灌木和鳞茎类植物呈现显著增加的趋势。这些结果为我们预测该地区植物功能型对全球变化影响的响应提供了依据。 　　在北京北部农牧交错区对不同生境类型的植物功能型进行了研究，该区域有C4植物68种。具有C4 植物的科相对集中，主要分布在禾本科（29属43种）、莎草科（4属16种）和藜科（3属5种）。菊科、豆科和蔷薇科这3大科中没有发现C4 植物。C4植物约占该地区调查植物总数的9%，C3 植物为89%、CAM植物为2%。多年生高禾草和多年生杂类草的比例无论从生长条件良好的草地到沙地，还是从草地到弃耕干扰地都呈现显著下降的趋势，而一年生杂类草和一年生禾草的变化却呈相反的变化趋势。C4植物中一年生植物占的比例最大，而且各个生境中C4植物在一年生植物的比例均超过30%，这说明该地区各个生境植被都已有相当程度的退化。上述结果证明植物功能型能在不同生境尺度上反映土地利用的变化。 　　对典型农牧交错区（多伦县）植物功能型研究表明，在该地区调查的11个群落中有4种C4植物（2科3属），其中禾本科3种、藜科1种。 C4 植物约占该地区调查植物总数的4.5%，C3 植物为95%，CAM植物为0.5%。研究结果表明随着土壤水分含量的降低，C4 功能型以及一年生杂草、一年生禾草、多年生矮禾草对群落水分利用的贡献呈现出显著增加的趋势，而多年生杂类草和多年生高禾草则呈现相反的变化趋势。不同植物功能型的水分利用效率是一个相对稳定的指标，可能成为我们进行更大尺度水分变化分析的有力工具。多年生杂类草和多年生高禾草对维持该地区生态系统生产力以及稳定性具有至关重要的作用，随土壤水分的下降，二者的地位和作用均呈现下降趋势，因此可能导致该地区草地生态系统生产力和稳定性的持续下降。在植物功能型鉴定的基础上，分析了多样性与土壤水分和生产力关系，研究发现植物功能型多样性与土壤水分和生产力相关性更为显著。 　　对3个研究地点植物功能型的比较研究发现，就植物光合功能型而言，随降水量减少和温度降低，单子叶C4光合功能型比例呈现显著下降趋势，而双子叶C4光合功能型却呈现显著增加的趋势;植物形态功能型在区域尺度上没有而呈现出明显的变化趋势。研究表明植物光合功能型对于大尺度下环境因子的变化具有敏感的响应，而植物形态功能型可能更适合在中小尺度下研究环境的异质性以及土地利用方式的变化。