Functional Plant Traits and Their Role in Adaptation to Resource-Limited Forest Environments
Keywords:
Functional traits, Environmental filtering, Resource limitation, Functional diversity, Aboveground biomassAbstract
Functional traits provide an ecological basis for understanding how forest communities respond to variation in environmental resources. This study examined functional trait composition, functional diversity, resource gradients, and aboveground biomass (AGB) across 200 forest plots comprising deciduous, evergreen, and mixed forests. Community-weighted leaf and structural traits were evaluated alongside functional diversity indices, edaphic variables, and climatic conditions. Forest types differed significantly in LDMC, SLA, maximum height, maximum DBH, functional dispersion, functional richness, and AGB (p < 0.001). Evergreen forests showed greater structural trait values, whereas mixed forests exhibited higher SLA and functional diversity. Trait–environment analysis revealed strong associations between soil nitrogen and maximum height (r = 0.704) and DBH (r = 0.674), while SLA was positively associated with relative humidity (r = 0.659). Functional traits explained 79.5% of AGB variation, exceeding the explanatory contribution of environmental variables or functional diversity alone. The integrated model combining trait, environmental, and diversity predictors achieved the highest explanatory performance (R² = 0.849; adjusted R² = 0.829). DBHmax, soil nitrogen, and Hmax emerged as prominent biomass predictors. These findings demonstrate that integrating functional traits with environmental resource gradients can clarify community-level ecological strategies and forest biomass patterns under resource constraints.
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