CSR analysis of plant functional types in highly diverse tropical grasslands of harsh environments

• Published in: Plant ecology Vol. 215; no. 4; pp. 379 - 388
• Main Authors: Negreiros, Daniel, Le Stradic, Soizig, Fernandes, G. Wilson, Rennó, Henrique C
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer-Verlag 01.04.2014; Springer; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag; Springer Science & Business Media B.V
• Subjects: Analysis; Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied Ecology; Biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Community & Population Ecology; Comparative studies; Corporate social responsibility; Dry matter; dry matter content; Ecology; ecoregions; Ecosystems; Environmental Sciences; Environmental sciences & ecology; Environmental stress; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Grassland soils; Grasslands; Habitat conservation; Habitats; Leaf area; Leaves; Life Sciences; Mountain ecology; Mountain ecosystems; Nutrient concentrations; nutrient content; Plant communities; Plant Ecology; Plant species; Plants; Sand soils; Sciences de l’environnement & écologie; Sciences du vivant; Soil fertility; Soil texture; Soils; Species; Stress tolerance; temperate zones; Terrestial Ecology; tropical grasslands; Tropical plants; Vegetation; vegetation cover; Water availability; Rupestrian grasslands; Trait–environment relationship; Soil texture; Comparative ecology; Leaf economics spectrum; Resource use; Grassland; Functional trait; Tropical zone; Trait-environment relationship; Ecology; Plant leaf; Plant traits; Texture; Spectrum; Soils; Economic aspect; Resource management
• ISSN: 1385-0237; 1573-5052; 1573-5052
• DOI: 10.1007/s11258-014-0302-6

The classification of plant species according to the CSR ecological strategy scheme has been proposed as a common language that allows comparison among species, communities, and floras. Although several studies on European continent have demonstrated a consistent association between CSR strategies and key ecosystem processes, studies of this type are still lacking in other ecoregions worldwide. For the first time, the CSR strategy scheme is applied in a tropical plant community. In a Brazilian mountain grassland ecosystem characterized by both high biodiversity and environmental stress, we sampled various functional traits of 48 herbaceous species in stony and sandy grasslands, and evaluated the relationship between CSR strategies and functional traits with several environmental parameters. The extremely infertile soils in the two studied habitats may have acted as a major environmental filter leading to a clear predominance of the stress-tolerant strategy in both communities. However, fine-scale environmental differences between the two communities resulted in the filtering of distinct functional trait values. The sites with coarser soil texture, lower percentage of plant cover and (paradoxically) higher mineral nutrient concentrations favored plants with narrower leaves, higher stress tolerance, lower competitiveness, and higher sclerophylly (i.e., lower specific leaf area and higher leaf dry matter content). The comparison between the functional character of stony and sandy communities evidenced the influence of soil texture and water availability in the environmental filtering. This study highlighted the validity of the CSR classification outside the temperate region where it was originally developed and corroborated.