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A Multidimensional Functional Trait Approach Reveals the Imprint of Environmental Stress in Mediterranean Woody Communities

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Abstract

Water availability is one of the most important factors determining species distribution, plant community structure and ecosystem functioning. We explore how the functional structure of Mediterranean woody plant communities varies along a regional gradient of aridity in the Andalusian region (south Spain). We question whether communities located in more arid sites show more similarity in their functional structure when compared with communities located in wetter sites or whether, instead, there is divergence in their functional spaces. We selected five aridity zones (three sampling sites per zone) and measured 13 traits of different functional dimensions (including leaf, stem and root traits) in 74 woody plant species. We quantified functional space differences using the n-dimensional niche space approach (hypervolume). We found a larger functional space for the wetter communities compared with the more arid communities, which showed greater overlap of the trait space occupation. Our results indicate that aridity acts as a key abiotic filter affecting various metrics of the community trait structure, in accordance with the plant economics spectrum. We have also documented consistent variation in the functional space, supporting lower functional diversity under more harsh climatic conditions. The trend of functional space variation along the aridity gradient was different when considering traits from only one plant organ. Thus, the filtering process driving the functional structure of the communities studied here largely depends on the trait axis considered; for example, the root dimension showed considerable variation in wet environments, whereas the leaf dimension exhibited a larger functional space in the drier habitats.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Spanish MEC Projects DIVERBOS (CGL2011-30285-C02-01 and C02-02), ECO-MEDIT (CGL2014-53236-R), RESTECO (CGL2014-52858-R) and DECAFUN (CGL2015-70123-R), the Andalusian ANASINQUE project (PGC2010-RNM-5782), the Life + Biodehesa Project (11/BIO/ES/000726), and the European FEDER funds. CV was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant Project ‘Ecophysiological and biophysical constraints on domestication in crop plants’ (Grant ERC-StG-2014-639706-CONSTRAINTS). Thanks are due to Emilio Retamosa and Vicky Schwarzer from the Cabo de Gata Natural Park, for field assistance and plant classification. Isotopic analysis was carried out in the LIE (EBD-CSIC) and analysis of leaf N in the SCAI of the University of Córdoba. Dr. David Walker revised the English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Área de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071, Córdoba, Spain

    Enrique G. de la Riva, Manuel Olmo & Rafael Villar

  2. CEFE UMR 5175, CNRS – Université de Montpellier – Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier – EPHE, 1919 route de Mende, 34293, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Cyrille Violle

  3. Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla, IRNAS, CSIC, 41012, Seville, Spain

    Ignacio M. Pérez-Ramos, Teodoro Marañón & Carmen M. Navarro-Fernández

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  1. Enrique G. de la Riva
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  2. Cyrille Violle
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  4. Teodoro Marañón
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  6. Manuel Olmo
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  7. Rafael Villar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Enrique G. de la Riva.

Additional information

All the root traits are available in the Fine-Root Ecology Database (FRED; http://roots.ornl.gov). All the traits from Sierra Morena are available in Dryad Digital Repository (http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dr275).

Authors’ Contributions

EGR, TM, IPR and RV conceived of or designed the study. EGR, CNF and MO performed the research. EGR analysed the data. CV contributed to new methods or models. EGR, CV, IPR, TM and RV wrote the paper.

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de la Riva, E.G., Violle, C., Pérez-Ramos, I.M. et al. A Multidimensional Functional Trait Approach Reveals the Imprint of Environmental Stress in Mediterranean Woody Communities. Ecosystems 21, 248–262 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-017-0147-7

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