https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2656-558X
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ABSTRACT
Background
The fast–slow plant economy hypothesis predicts strong co-variation in key resource-use traits due to the trade-off between growth and survival of species. Accordingly, it is expected that trait variation may be reduced to a single dimension along a growth-survival gradient. However, some studies warn against such reductionism and promote investigating how a multi-dimensional trait space can be interpreted in a growth-survival trade-off context.
Aim
To quantify the dimensionality of the trait variation of trees and tree-like species to test the fast–slow plant economy hypothesis in a subtropical rain forest.
Methods
We conducted phylogenetic Principal Components Analyses and correlation test on traits describing carbon and water economy in the leaves, stem, and seeds to evaluate the dimensionality of trait space and covariation among traits.
Results
We found five axes explaining 71% of trait variation. The first and second axes described carbon capture and allocation. Water use economy was related to carbon capture and was also represented on the third axis. Stomata traits were related to the fourth axis and plant potential height to the fourth and fifth axes.
Conclusion
The high dimensionality we found suggests that ecological strategies to water and carbon use are diverse in (sub)tropical montane forest species. Therefore, contrary to the expectation, these plants could use different ecological strategies to achieve a similar fitness in the growth–survival gradient.
Acknowledgements
We thank Gabriel Nakamura, Aline Richter, and members of Laboratório de Ecologia Funcional e Filogenética (LEFF-UFRGS) for discussions in early version of the manuscript. Also, to Laszlo Nagy and the anonymous referees of the manuscript for the important comments and constructive criticism, which contributed to improving the text.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Arthur V. Rodrigues
Arthur V. Rodrigues, a Ph.D. student in ecology, is interested in the quantifying the impact of evolutionary history and functional traits on species distribution and biodiversity patterns, from local to biogeographic scale.
Fábio F. Pastório
Fábio F. Pastório is a biologist interested in species richness patterns, vegetation classification, legislation and classification of subtropical secondary forests.
Fábio L. V. Bones
Fábio L. V. Bones is reading for a master’s degree.
Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert
Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert is an ecologist studying the impacts of global change on forests, with particular interest in the tropical region.
Alexander C. Vibrans
Alexander C. Vibrans is a forester, who works on large scale forest inventory and monitoring, forest ecology. secondary forests and remote sensing.
André L. de Gasper
André L. de Gasper is a botanist and plant ecologist research that investigates species taxonomic delimitation, as well as diversity patterns.