The Role of Environmental Filtering in Structuring Appalachian Tree Communities: Topographic Influences on Functional Diversity Are Mediated through Soil Characteristics

Identifying the drivers of community assembly has long been a central goal in ecology, and the development of functional diversity indices has provided a new way of detecting the influence of environmental gradients on biotic communities. For an old-growth Appalachian forest, we used path analysis t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inForests Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 19
Main Authors Chapman, Julia, McEwan, Ryan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.01.2018
Subjects
Assembly
Biodiversity
Communities
community-weighted mean
Diversity indices
Elevation
Environmental gradient
Filtration
Forests
functional dispersion
functional richness
Nutrients
old-growth
path analysis
Plant diversity
Soil characteristics
Soil chemistry
Soil fertility
Soil moisture
Soil nutrients
Species diversity
stress-dominance hypothesis
Temperate forests
Topography
Trees
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Identifying the drivers of community assembly has long been a central goal in ecology, and the development of functional diversity indices has provided a new way of detecting the influence of environmental gradients on biotic communities. For an old-growth Appalachian forest, we used path analysis to understand how patterns of tree functional diversity relate to topography and soil gradients and to determine whether topographic effects are mediated through soil chemistry. All of our path models supported the idea of environmental filtering: stressful areas (high elevation, low soil moisture, low soil nutrients) were occupied by communities of low functional diversity, which suggests a selective effect for species with traits adapted to such harsh conditions. The effects of topography (slope, aspect, elevation) on functional diversity were often indirect and moderated through soil moisture and fertility. Soil moisture was a key component of our models and was featured consistently in each one, having either strong direct effects on functional diversity or indirect effects via soil fertility. Our results provide a comprehensive view of the interplay among functional trait assemblages, topography, and edaphic conditions and contribute to the baseline understanding of the role of environmental filtering in temperate forest community assembly.
ISSN:1999-4907
1999-4907
DOI:10.3390/f9010019