植物功能性状研究进展

Plant Functional Traits—Concepts, Applications and Future Directions

植物功能性状是指植物体具有的与其定植、存活、生长和死亡紧密相关的一系列核心植物属性,且这些属性能够显著影响生态系统功能,并能够反映植被对环境变化的响应.越来越多的研究表明,相比大多数基于植物分类和数量的研究,植物功能性状在种群、群落和生态系统尺度上,都已成为解决重要生态学问题的可靠途径.本文回顾了植物功能性状研究的发展历程,总结了近10年来基于植物功能性状研究的前沿科学问题,包括功能性状的全球分布格局和内在关联,沿环境梯度的变化规律,功能多样性的定义及应用,与群落物种共存机制和群落动态变化的关系,与系统发育的关系,对生态系统功能的影响以及对各类干扰的影响和响应.尽管功能性状研究已经延伸到生态学领域的各个方面,有力推动了各个前沿科学问题的研究发展,仍然有很多值得关注和着重研究的方向.本文也对未来基于植物功能性状的研究,从性状测量和选取、研究方法以及研究方向上提出了展望,并指出,在当前全球气候变化背景下,功能性状也可应用于指导生物多样性保护和生态系统管理政策的制定.

Plant functional traits are plant core attributes closely related to plant colonization, survival, growth and mortality. These core attributes could significantly affect ecosystem functions and reflect the response of vegetation to environmental change. There is growing recognition that many ecological questions at various levels can be addressed effectively with key functional traits. In this paper, we review key research progress over the last 10 years addressing important ecological issues based on functional traits, including global distribution patterns of functional traits and their associations, variation of traits distribution along environmental gradients, functional diversity and its application, mechanisms of community assembly and dynamics regarding functional traits, the relationship between traits and phylogeny, the effect and response of functional traits to ecosystem functions and disturbance. In addition, we also provide a future outlook, including research directions, methods and applications based on functional traits in plant science. Specially, we propose that functional traits can also be used as indicators or reference for biodiversity conservation and management of ecosystems under the current global climate change. China has a huge territory, which brings great natural recourses of geography and plants, providing a huge natural database for research on functional traits.