Plant traits and ecological strategies elucidate various aspects of ecosystem functioning and services. However, the well-recognized trade-offs evident at the species level are not always expected to mirror community-level variation. Here, we investigated, at the regional scale, the community-level trade-offs of three key plant traits representing economics and size spectra (LA—leaf area, LDMC—leaf dry matter content and SLA—specific leaf area) and Grime’s CSR (competitive, stress tolerant, ruderal) plant strategies. We compared six siliceous alpine plant communities, also representative of Habitat types of EU Community interest (Habitats Directive, 92/43/EEC), distributed along a succession gradient, using a wide range of phytosociological relevés for which we calculated community weighted mean (CWM) trait values and C-, S- and R-scores. Our aims were to: (1) determine the validity of the plant community global spectrum of trait variation within alpine habitats; (2) investigate the discriminating capacity of plant traits and strategies to identify functional niches of dominance, stress and disturbance along the succession gradient; (3) quantify the variation in community structure (species richness and total species cover) through such functional niches. We observed a clear pattern of community-level trait variation that reflected the plant economics spectrum: from acquisitive and fast-growing characteristics in pioneer succession stages, to conservative and stress-tolerant features toward the succession climax, while the productive niche typical of C-selected strategies was scarce. Species richness and total species cover were both greater at intermediate levels of S- and R-selection gradients, indicating high niche differentiation in habitats characterized by exposure to stress or disturbance. Overall, this study demonstrates that trait trade-offs between communities identified at the global scale can undergo adaptation at the regional scale caused by local environmental conditions and also confirms the applicability of CSR strategies to investigate community-level variation of alpine vegetation.

中文翻译：

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植物功能性状和生态策略的群落水平变异沿着高山环境中的演替梯度塑造栖息地结构

植物性状和生态策略阐明了生态系统功能和服务的各个方面。然而，人们并不总是期望在物种层面上公认的权衡取舍反映社区层面的变化。在这里，我们在区域规模上研究了代表经济和尺寸谱的三个关键植物性状（LA-叶面积，LDMC-叶干物质含量和SLA-特定叶面积）和Grime的CSR（社区水平）的社区级权衡。竞争，耐压，野蛮的植物策略。我们比较了六个硅质高山植物群落，它们也是代表欧盟共同体栖息地类型的代表（栖息地指令，92/43 / EEC），它们使用一系列植物社会学相关性沿演替梯度分布，我们为此计算了群落加权平均数（CWM） ）特征值和C-，S-和R-分数。我们的目标是：（1）确定高山生境内植物群落全球性状变异的光谱的有效性；（2）研究植物性状的识别能力和策略，以识别沿演替梯度的优势，胁迫和干扰功能位；（3）通过这些功能生态位来量化群落结构的变化（物种丰富度和总物种覆盖率）。我们观察到了清晰的群落级性状变异模式，反映了植物的经济谱：从先驱演替阶段的获得性和快速生长特征，到演替高潮的保守且耐压的特征，而典型的C生产性利基选择的策略很少。在S-和R-选择梯度的中间水平，物种丰富度和总物种覆盖率都更高，表明以暴露于压力或干扰为特征的生境中生态位高度分化。总体而言，这项研究表明，在全球范围内确定的社区之间的性状权衡可以因当地环境条件而在区域范围内进行适应，并且还证实了CSR策略在研究高山植被社区水平变化方面的适用性。