Aims Understanding the relative importance of historical and environ-mental processes in the structure and composition of communities is one of the longest quests in ecological research.Increasingly,researchers are re...Aims Understanding the relative importance of historical and environ-mental processes in the structure and composition of communities is one of the longest quests in ecological research.Increasingly,researchers are relying on the functional and phylogeneticβ-diversity of natural communities to provide concise explanations on the mechanistic basis of community assembly and the drivers of trait variation among species.The present study investigated how plant functional and phylogeneticβ-diversity change along key environmental and spatial gradients in the Western Swiss Alps.Methods Using the quadratic diversity measure based on six functional traits-specific leaf area,leaf dry matter content,plant height,leaf carbon content,leaf nitrogen content and leaf carbon to nitrogen content alongside a species-resolved phylogenetic tree-we relate variations in climate,spatial geographic,land use and soil gradients to plant functional and phylogenetic turnover in mountain commu-nities of the Western Swiss Alps.Important Findings Our study highlights two main points.First,climate and land-use factors play an important role in mountain plant community turnover.Second,the overlap between plant functional and phy-logenetic turnover along these gradients correlates with the low phylogenetic signal in traits,suggesting that in mountain land-scapes,trait lability is likely an important factor in driving plant community assembly.Overall,we demonstrate the importance of climate and land-use factors in plant functional and phyloge-netic community turnover and provide valuable complementary insights into understanding patterns ofβ-diversity along several ecological gradients.展开更多
基金Fellowship grant from the Faculty of Biology and Medicine University of Lausanne,Switzerland.
文摘Aims Understanding the relative importance of historical and environ-mental processes in the structure and composition of communities is one of the longest quests in ecological research.Increasingly,researchers are relying on the functional and phylogeneticβ-diversity of natural communities to provide concise explanations on the mechanistic basis of community assembly and the drivers of trait variation among species.The present study investigated how plant functional and phylogeneticβ-diversity change along key environmental and spatial gradients in the Western Swiss Alps.Methods Using the quadratic diversity measure based on six functional traits-specific leaf area,leaf dry matter content,plant height,leaf carbon content,leaf nitrogen content and leaf carbon to nitrogen content alongside a species-resolved phylogenetic tree-we relate variations in climate,spatial geographic,land use and soil gradients to plant functional and phylogenetic turnover in mountain commu-nities of the Western Swiss Alps.Important Findings Our study highlights two main points.First,climate and land-use factors play an important role in mountain plant community turnover.Second,the overlap between plant functional and phy-logenetic turnover along these gradients correlates with the low phylogenetic signal in traits,suggesting that in mountain land-scapes,trait lability is likely an important factor in driving plant community assembly.Overall,we demonstrate the importance of climate and land-use factors in plant functional and phyloge-netic community turnover and provide valuable complementary insights into understanding patterns ofβ-diversity along several ecological gradients.
