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High Functional Diversity is Related to High Nitrogen Availability in a Deciduous Forest – Evidence from a Functional Trait Approach
- Publication Year :
- 2010
- Publisher :
- Springer Netherlands, 2010.
-
Abstract
- The current study tested the assumption that floristic and functional diversity patterns are negatively related to soil nitrogen content. We analyzed 20 plots with soil N-contents ranging from 0.63% to 1.06% in a deciduous forest near Munich (Germany). To describe species adaptation strategies to different nitrogen availabilities, we used a plant functional type (PFT) approach. Each identified PFT represents one realized adaptation strategy to the current environment. These were correlated, next to plant species richness and evenness, to soil nitrogen contents. We found that N-efficient species were typical for low soil nitrogen contents, while N-requiring species occur at high N-contents. In contrast to our initial hypotheses, floristic and functional diversity measures (number of PFTs) were positively related to nitrogen content in the soil. Every functional group has its own adaptation to the prevailing environmental conditions; in consequence, these functional groups can co-exist but do not out-compete one another. The increased number of functional groups at high N-contents leads to increased species richness. Hence, for explaining diversity patterns we need to consider species groups representing different adaptations to the current environmental conditions. Such co-existing ecological strategies may even overcome the importance of competition in their effect on biodiversity. peerReviewed
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
media_common.quotation_subject
Biodiversity
Plant Science
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Competition (biology)
ddc:550
Functional group (ecology)
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
media_common
2. Zero hunger
Ecology
Palaeontology
Paleontology
15. Life on land
Plant functional type
Plant ecology
Deciduous
ddc:580
Species evenness
Species richness
Life history traits
Nitrogen heterogeneity hypothesis
Nitrogen homogeneity hypothesis
Plant functional types (PFT)
Life Sciences
Life Sciences, general
Plant Sciences
Plant Ecology
Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....6a395b0094139d53d00e0fff5194c962