scholarly journals Retrieving Foliar Traits of Quercus garryana var. garryana across a Modified Landscape Using Leaf Spectroscopy and LiDAR

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Paul W. Hacker ◽  
Nicholas C. Coops ◽  
Philip A. Townsend ◽  
Zhihui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Leaf Growth ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Leaf Structure ◽  
Leaf Mass Per Area ◽  
Quercus Garryana ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Anthropogenic Landscape

Understanding the ecological effects of human activities on an ecosystem is integral to the implementation of conservation management plans. The plasticity of plant functional traits presents an opportunity to examine the capacity for intraspecific functional trait variations to be indicators of anthropogenic landscape modifications. The presence of intraspecific trait variation would indicate that plants of a single species could to be used to evaluate and map functional diversity, a common metric used to measure biodiversity. This study uses leaf spectroscopy, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) to examine the intraspecific variation of functional traits in a population of 40 Quercus garryana experiencing varying levels of anthropogenic influence at the site level (<0.3 km2) in Duncan, B.C., Canada. These individuals vary in their spatial relationship to roads, agricultural land use change and an encroaching Coastal Douglas-fir forest. A total of 14 functional traits were estimated using pre-determined PLSR coefficients from a multi-species dataset. LiDAR data for each tree and were organized into functional categories based on their influence of plant lifeform, leaf growth or leaf structure. Principal components analysis was performed on each functional category to determine the relative influence of each trait. Results show that leaf growth and lifeform functional trait categories express significant variation in relation to three anthropogenic landscape modifications, while traits associated to leaf structure only varied between land use types (p = 0.05). Diameter at breast height (DBH), mass-based chlorophyll and leaf mass per area (LMA) showed the strongest variation across treatments. These findings support the hypothesis that trait variation exists in small populations of the same species and illustrate that spectroscopy can be used to indirectly sense land use via the leaf functional traits of a single tree species.

Within-species leaf trait variation and ecological flexibility in resprouting tropical trees

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 527-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl F. Salk
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Area ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Leaf Mass Per Area ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Leaf Functional Traits ◽  
Leaf Trait ◽  
Neotropical Tree ◽  
Ecological Flexibility

Plants have an inherent flexibility to respond to different environmental conditions. One axis of plant ecophysiological strategy is seen in the spectrum of leaf functional traits. Flexibility in these traits would be suggestive of plants’ phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental changes. This research seeks to identify differences between leaves of sprout and non-sprout shoots of a broad ecological range of neotropical tree species. Using a functional-trait approach, this study assesses a large pool of species for within-species physiological flexibility. Leaf mass per area (LMA) and leaf area were measured for plants of sprout and non-sprout origin for 26 tree species grown in a reforestation plantation in Panama. Sprouts had a consistently lower LMA than non-sprouts, but there was no consistent pattern for leaf area. These trends show that sprouts are more like pioneer species than conspecific saplings, a finding in general agreement with fast sprout growth seen in previous studies. Further, later-successional (high LMA) species showed a greater reduction of LMA in sprouts. These results show that tropical tree species adjust physiologically to changing ecological roles and suggest that certain species may be more resilient than realized to changing climate and disturbance patterns.

scholarly journals Risks to pollinators from different land-use transitions: bee species’ responses to agricultural expansion show strong phylogenetic signal

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana De Palma ◽  
Michael Kuhlmann ◽  
William D. Pearse ◽  
Emma Flynn ◽  
Stuart P.M. Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Phylogenetic Signal ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Agricultural Expansion ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Species Vulnerability ◽  
Species Responses

AbstractBee species worldwide are facing a future of further land-use change and intensification. Populations of closely-related species with similar ecological characteristics are likely to respond similarly to such pressures. Such phylogenetic signal in species’ responses could undermine the stability of pollination services in agricultural and natural systems. We use abundance data from a global compilation of bee assemblages in different land uses to assess the sensitivity of 573 bee species to agricultural expansion, intensification and urbanization; and combine the results with the Bee Tree of Life to assess phylogenetic signal. In addition, we assess whether variation in species’ sensitivity to land-use change is better explained by phylogenetic or available functional trait differences. Bee species show strong phylogenetic signal in sensitivity to agricultural land expansion but only a weak signal in sensitivity to agricultural intensification and urbanisation. Sensitivities were usually best explained by a combination of functional and phylogenetic distances. This finding suggests that the commonly-recorded traits, despite being meaningful as functional response traits, do not capture all important determinants of bee species’ vulnerability or resistance. However, it also suggests that model-based predictions of the sensitivity of poorly known species may be sufficient to help guide conservation efforts.

scholarly journals Trait Gradient Analysis for Evergreen and Deciduous Species in a Subtropical Forest

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 364
Author(s):  
Liangjin Yao ◽  
Yi Ding ◽  
Lan Yao ◽  
Xunru Ai ◽  
Runguo Zang
Keyword(s):  
Functional Traits ◽  
Gradient Analysis ◽  
Mixed Forest ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Central China ◽  
Deciduous Species ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Species Trait

Leaf habits (e.g., evergreen or deciduous) can reflect strategies of species adapting to varied environmental conditions. However, how species with different leaf habits coexist within a plant community is still poorly understood. Trait gradient analysis is a new approach to partition plant functional trait variations into alpha (within-community) and beta (among-community) components to quantify the effects of environmental filtering and biotic competition on community assembly. Here, on the basis of establishing forty-eight forest dynamic plots in a subtropical evergreen and deciduous broadleaved mixed forest in central China and measuring of seven functional traits, we compared the trait variation patterns and influencing factors of evergreen and deciduous species by using the trait gradient analysis method. The results showed that there were significant differences between functional traits for evergreen and deciduous species. Alpha trait components consistently varied more widely than beta components. The correlation between species trait mean and the alpha of each trait was highly significant, but there was no significant correlation between beta and alpha trait values. There were relatively weak or nonexistent significant correlations among species mean trait values and alpha trait values of different functional traits. However, the beta trait value showed high and significant correlations in both evergreen and deciduous species. Our results indicated that evergreen and deciduous species adopt similar adaptation strategies (beta component) in the context of environmental change in the community. However, the species initially came to coexist via the ecological positioning of traits (alpha component), which helped reduce competition so individuals could obtain more resources.

scholarly journals Aridity drives coordinated trait shifts but not decreased trait variance across the geographic range of eight Australian trees

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leander DL Anderegg ◽  
Xingwen Loy ◽  
Ian P. Markham ◽  
Christina M Elmer ◽  
Mark J Hovenden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Trait ◽  
Matter Content ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Leaf Mass Per Area ◽  
Species Variation ◽  
Dry Matter Content ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Huber Value ◽  
Trait Variance ◽  
Species Trait

AbstractContextLarge intraspecific functional trait variation strongly impacts many aspects of natural communities and ecosystems, yet is inconsistent across traits and species.ApproachWe measured within-species variation in leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), branch wood density (WD), and allocation to stem area vs. leaf area in branches (branch Huber value, HV) across the aridity range of seven Australian eucalypts and an Acacia species to explore how traits and their variances change with aridity.Results and ConclusionsWithin-species, we found consistent increases in LMA, LDMC and WD, and HV with increasing aridity, resulting in consistent trait coordination across tissues. However, this coordination only emerged across sites with large climate differences. Unlike trait means, patterns of trait variance with aridity were mixed across populations and species and showed limited support for constrained trait variation in dryer populations or more xeric species.SynthesisOur results highlight that climate can drive consistent within-species trait patterns, but that these patterns might often be obscured by the complex nature of morphological traits and sampling incomplete species ranges or sampling confounded stress gradients.

scholarly journals Intraspecific variation in land use-related functional traits in Plantago lanceolata

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bence Gáspár ◽  
Oliver Bossdorf ◽  
Madalin Parepa
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Intraspecific Variation ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Competitive Ability ◽  
Plantago Lanceolata ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Plant Responses ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Functional Link ◽  
Trade Offs

AbstractBackground and aimsIntraspecific variation in functional traits is essential for the evolutionary success of organisms. The co-variation between trait variation and environment, as well as between different traits, can help us to understand which ecological factors drive habitat adaptation, and to what extent adaptation may be constrained by trait correlations and trade-offs. In managed grasslands, plants experience a combination of competition, recurrent biomass removal and nutrient pulses. Each of these ecological challenges requires specific plant tolerances, and populations should locally adapt if intraspecific variation exists in these traits.MethodsWe studied variation in land use-related traits in the common grassland plant Plantago lanceolata. In a common environment, we quantified the competitive ability (R*), clipping tolerance and responses to a nitrogen pulse of plants from 54 populations with different land use intensities across Germany.Key resultsWe found significant population differentiation in competitive ability but there was little evidence that trait variation was related to land use intensity. There was a positive relationship between competitive ability and clipping tolerance at the population level, indicating a genetic, and possibly functional, link between these two traits. In contrast, clipping tolerance and nitrogen responses were negatively correlated at the levels of plant individuals, indicating a physiological trade-off between plant responses to these two land-use processes.ConclusionsOur results show that there is substantial intraspecific variation in some of the key functional traits for plant success in managed grasslands, and that rapid evolution and adaptation is therefore possible in these traits.

Climate Change and Land Use Change of Rural Households in The Red River Delta, Vietnam

2013 ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Ngoc Luu Bich
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Rural Households ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Red River ◽  
Red River Delta ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Main Production ◽  
Farming Households

Climate change (CC) and its impacts on the socio-economy and the development of communities has become an issue causing very special concern. The rise in global temperatures, in sea levels, extreme weather phenomena, and salinization have occurred more and more and have directly influenced the livelihoods of rural households in the Red River Delta – one of the two regions projected to suffer strongly from climate change in Vietnam. For farming households in this region, the major and traditional livelihoods are based on main production materials as agricultural land, or aquacultural water surface Changes in the land use of rural households in the Red River Delta during recent times was influenced strongly by the Renovation policy in agriculture as well as the process of industrialization and modernization in the country. Climate change over the past 5 years (2005-2011) has started influencing household land use with the concrete manifestations being the reduction of the area cultivated and the changing of the purpose of land use.

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