Extent of intra-population functional variability along a local environmental gradient for four calcareous grasslands species | Magnitude de la variabilité fonctionnelle intra-population le long d'un gradient environnemental pour 4 espèces de pelouses calcicoles

In the last few years, an increasing body of evidence has highlighted the role of functional traits as reliable predictors of species resistance to disturbance and response to environmental gradients. However, most studies focused on functional comparisons at the interspecific level while intraspecific functional trait variation has received remarkably little attention. As intraspecific traits variability is a necessary condition for species to adapt to environmental changes, studying intraspecific functional traits variation along environmental gradients is a major issue in a context of global change. The aim of our study was to evaluate the extent of intraspecific functional variability of four species along an environmental gradient of water stress at a local scale and to compare species response to the gradient. Calcareous grasslands species are present along a xeric gradient from mesophilous to xerophilous grasslands. Changes of exposure, slope and soil depth lead to differences of water availability for plants along the gradient. We measured the maximum vegetative height (MVH), the specific leaf area (SLA, one side area of a fresh leaf divided by its oven-dry mass) and the leaf dry matter content (LDMC, leaf oven-dry mass divided by its water-saturated fresh mass) on randomly selected individuals along a gradient of xericity on three study sites located in south Belgium. Functional traits were measured on about 60 individuals per site and per species. The soil depth was measured around each individual. The exposure and the slope were measured in order to calculate a heat load index for each individual. The extent of local intraspecific functional variability of our data was compared to data covering the species European range. Results are species dependent but for some study species intraspecific functional variability at local scale is not negligible compared to European data. Species functional responses to the gradient (soil depth and heat load index) showed a decrease in SLA and MVH and an increase in LDMC with increasing xericity for all study species. Response extent was species dependent. Main implications for species resistance to disturbance and climate change adaptation will be discussed.