Coastal systems experience frequent disturbance and multiple environmental stressors over short spatial and temporal scales. Investigating functional traits in coastal systems has the potential to inform how variation in disturbance frequency and environmental variables influence differences in trait‐based community composition and ecosystem function. Our goals were to (1) quantify trait‐based communities on two barrier islands divergent in topography and long‐term disturbance response and (2) determine relationships between community trait‐based composition and ecosystem productivity. We hypothesized that locations documented with high disturbance would have habitats with similar environmental conditions and trait‐based communities, with the opposite relationship in low‐disturbance locations. Furthermore, we expected higher productivity and lower site‐to‐site variation with low disturbance. Functional traits, biomass, and environmental metrics (soil salinity, elevation, and distance to shoreline) were collected and analyzed for two habitat types (dune and swale) on two Virginia barrier islands. Our results show that trait‐based community composition differed among habitat types and was related to disturbance. Habitats exhibited more similarity on the high‐disturbance island in both trait‐based composition and environmental variables. Conversely, the low‐disturbance island habitats were more dissimilar. We found the habitat with the lowest disturbance had the highest ecosystem productivity and had trait‐based communities indicative of highly competitive environments, while the high‐disturbance trait‐based communities were influenced by traits that indicate rapid recovery and growth. Site‐to‐site variation was similar in all dune habitats but differed among inter‐island swale habitats that varied in disturbance. These results highlight the importance of incorporating trait‐based analyses when approaching questions about community structure and ecosystem productivity in disturbance‐mediated habitats, such as coastal systems.

中文翻译：

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地形和扰动影响沿海系统相邻生境的基于特征的组成和生产力

沿海系统在短时空尺度上遭受频繁的干扰和多种环境压力。研究沿海系统的功能性状有可能揭示干扰频率和环境变量的变化如何影响基于性状的群落组成和生态系统功能的差异。我们的目标是（1）在地形和长期扰动响应不同的两个障碍岛上量化基于特征的群落，以及（2）确定基于群落特征的成分与生态系统生产力之间的关系。我们假设记录在案的高干扰地区将具有类似的环境条件和基于特征的社区，而在低干扰地区则具有相反的关系。此外，我们期望更高的生产率和更低的站点间差异以及更低的干扰。收集功能性状，生物量和环境指标（土壤盐度，海拔和到海岸线的距离），并分析两个弗吉尼亚屏障岛上的两种栖息地类型（沙丘和沼泽）。我们的结果表明，基于特征的社区组成在生境类型之间有所不同，并且与干扰有关。在基于特质的成分和环境变量方面，生境在高干扰岛上表现出更多相似性。相反，低干扰的岛屿生境则更为相似。我们发现受干扰程度最低的栖息地具有最高的生态系统生产力，并且具有基于特征的社区，这些环境表明竞争激烈，而基于高干扰特质的社区受到表明快速恢复和增长的特质的影响。在所有沙丘生境中，点对点的变化都相似，但在扰动不同的岛间沼泽生境之间，点对点的变化也不同。这些结果凸显了在应对有关干扰结构的栖息地（如沿海系统）的群落结构和生态系统生产力的问题时，纳入基于特征的分析的重要性。