10.5061/DRYAD.TR3DQ8C
Fajardo, Alex
University Austral de Chile
Siefert, Andrew
University of California System
University of California, Davis
Data from: The interplay among intraspecific leaf trait variation, niche
breadth and species abundance along light and soil nutrient gradients
Dryad
dataset
2019
Temperate rainforests
community weighted mean trait value
Holocene
2019-01-17T19:49:36Z
2019-01-17T19:49:36Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.05849
104847 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
It is assumed that widespread, generalist species have high phenotypic
variation, but we know little about how intraspecific trait variation
(ITV) relates to species abundance and niche breadth. In the temperate
rainforest of southern Chile, we hypothesized that species with wide niche
breadth would exhibit 1) high among-plot ITV, 2) a strong relationship
between trait values and the environment, and 3) a close fit between
traits and local environment trait optima. We measured leaf functional
traits (leaf area, LMA, leaf N and P concentrations) of saplings in woody
species, and compared the relative abundance of each species with its
niche breadth, measured as the range of light, soil N and P availability.
We used the slope of the linear regression of species’ trait-environment
relationships to assess the strength and direction of these relationships,
and measured the degree to which species’ trait values track the
environmental optimum across plots. In some cases, species having wide
niche breadth had high ITV in leaf N and also matched traits (LMA and leaf
P) to local optima along the light gradient; they also had high ITV in
general and matched leaf P to local optima along the soil P gradient. The
relationship between species with wide niche breadth and the strength of
intraspecific trait-environment relationships was generally weak and
varied depending on the niche dimension and trait in question. Species
varied considerably in the strength of trait-environment relationships and
total magnitude of ITV, and this variation was not generally strongly
related to species abundances or niche breadth patterns. In conclusion,
trait variation at the community level is not driven by a few abundant,
widely distributed species, but depends on the aggregate trait responses
of both abundant and rare species. This makes it difficult to scale
individual species trait responses up to the community level.
patagonia_itv_data3_Sept2018Leaf trait values (LMA, leaf size, leaf N and
leaf P concentrations) of saplings of species belonging to the temperate
rainforest of southern Chile.
Southern Chile