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Rare and common species contribute disproportionately to the functional variation within tropical forests

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Title Rare and common species contribute disproportionately to the functional variation within tropical forests
 
Creator Zhang, S.
Zang, R.
Sheil, D.
 
Subject tropical forests
species distribution
 
Description Understanding how functional traits and functional entities (FEs, i.e., unique combinations of functional traits) are distributed within plant communities can contribute to the understanding of vegetation properties and changes in species composition. We utilized investigation data on woody plants (including trees, shrubs and lianas) from 17 1-ha plots across six old-growth tropical forest types on Hainan island, China. Plant species were categorized as common (>1 individuals/ha) and rare species (≤1 individuals/ha) according to their abundance to determine how they contributed to different ecosystem functions. First, we assessed the differences in traits between common and rare species, and second, we examined functional redundancy, functional over-redundancy, and functional vulnerability for common and rare species of the forests. We found that both common species and rare species in each of the forest types were placed into just a few FEs, leading to functional over-redundancy and resulting in functional vulnerability. Rare species tended to have different trait values than those of common species, and were differently distributed among FEs, indicating different contributions to ecosystem functioning. Our results highlighted the disproportionate contribution of rare species in all of the studied forests. Rare species are more likely than common species to possess unique FEs, and thus, they have a disproportionately large contribution to community trait space. The loss of such species may impact the functioning, redundancy, and resilience of tropical forests.
 
Date 2022-02
2023-07-12T06:32:56Z
2023-07-12T06:32:56Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Zhang, S., Zang, R., & Sheil, D. (2022). Rare and common species contribute disproportionately to the functional variation within tropical forests. Journal Of Environmental Management, 304, 114332. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114332
1095-8630
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/131101
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114332
 
Language en
 
Rights Copyrighted; all rights reserved
Limited Access
 
Format 114332
 
Publisher Elsevier BV
 
Source Journal of Environmental Management