Is it possible to generalize relationships between certain plant traits and soil fertility? In particular, are there quantitative relationships between community-weighted mean (CWM) trait values of leaf dry-matter content (LDMC), specific leaf area (SLA), plant height, and Grime’s competitor-stress tolerator-ruderal (CSR) strategy scores and the generalized soil fertility, F_G (i.e., the capacity of a soil to produce biomass when all nonsoil variables are held constant) that are generalizable across different species assemblages and geographical areas? We assessed F_G in 21 sites in southern Quebec and 7 sites in southern France using a previously published method based on structural equation modeling. We then determined the CWM values of LDMC, SLA, plant height, and CSR scores in the 21 Quebec sites to obtain quantitative relationships between F_G and these CWM traits. Using these relationships, we independently tested the generality of the trait–fertility relationships using data from French sites. The relationships between F_G and the CWM traits were nonlinear, but displayed the expected qualitative trends as reported in the literature. In particular, the S score and CWM LDMC decreased with increasing soil fertility, and the R score and CWM SLA increased. CWM traits were more strongly correlated to measures of F_G (r² up to 0.48) than to measures of other soil characteristics (r² up to 0.17 for nitrogen flux). Importantly, the independently tested French F_G–trait relationships showed no significant deviations from these quantitative relationships. Further investigation is necessary to confirm if the same trend applies to other regions and or ecosystems.

中文翻译：

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植物性状群落加权平均值与土壤肥力之间关系的量化

是否可以概括某些植物性状与土壤肥力之间的关系？特别是，叶片干物质含量 (LDMC)、比叶面积 (SLA)、植物高度的群落加权平均 (CWM) 性状值与 Grime 的竞争者-胁迫耐受者-粗野 (CSR) 策略得分之间是否存在定量关系？以及可在不同物种组合和地理区域中推广的广义土壤肥力 F _G（即，当所有非土壤变量保持不变时，土壤产生生物量的能力）？我们评估了 F _G使用先前发布的基于结构方程模型的方法在魁北克南部的 21 个站点和法国南部的 7 个站点中进行了研究。然后我们确定了 21 个魁北克站点的 LDMC、SLA、植物高度和 CSR 分数的 CWM 值，以获得 F _G与这些 CWM 性状之间的定量关系。使用这些关系，我们使用来自法国站点的数据独立测试了性状 - 生育关系的普遍性。F _G和 CWM 特征之间的关系是非线性的，但显示出文献中报道的预期定性趋势。特别是，随着土壤肥力的增加，S评分和CWM LDMC降低，而R评分和CWM SLA增加。CWM 性状与 F _{G 的}测量值相关性更强（r ²高达 0.48）而不是其他土壤特征的测量（对于氮通量，r ²高达 0.17）。重要的是，独立测试的法国 F _{G -}特质关系与这些定量关系没有显着偏差。需要进一步调查以确认相同的趋势是否适用于其他地区和/或生态系统。