Plant functional stategies of 13 co-occurring grass species explain their productivity and their abundance in productive grasslands.
2010
Da Silveira Pontes , Laise (INRA , Clermont-Ferrand (France). UR 0874 Unité de recherche sur l'Ecosystème Prairial ) | Maire , Vincent(collaborateur) (INRA , Clermont-Ferrand (France). UR 0874 Unité de recherche sur l'Ecosystème Prairial ) | Gross , Nicolas(collaborateur) (INRA , Clermont-Ferrand (France). UR 0874 Unité de recherche sur l'Ecosystème Prairial ) | Proulx , R(collaborateur) | Louault , Frédérique(collaborateur) (INRA , Clermont-Ferrand (France). UR 0874 Unité de recherche sur l'Ecosystème Prairial ) | Carrère , Pascal(collaborateur) (INRA , Clermont-Ferrand (France). UR 0874 Unité de recherche sur l'Ecosystème Prairial )
How plant functional strategies are translated into species abundance in a community is a key question for the estimation of ecosystem functioning along environmental gradients. We address this question using 13 widespread grass species co-occurring in semi-natural mesic grasslands of central France. Plant functional strategies were identified using a principal component analysis (PCA) on 28 plant traits measured for this species pool. We found that the main strategy that explains species productivity in monoculture was linked to a plant stature PCA axis. However, applied to six-species mixtures, the plant stature axis alone did not explain species abundances in these communities. Two additional functional axes were needed, particularly for grass mixtures under strong N limitation and high cutting frequency
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