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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2016, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (11): 3444-3454.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.201611.037

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Functional diversity characteristics of canopy tree species of Jianfengling tropical montane rainforest on Hainan Island, China.

XU Ge-xi1, SHI Zuo-min1,2*, TANG Jing-chao1, LIU Shun1, MA Fan-qiang1, XU Han3, LIU Shi-rong1, LI Yi-de3   

  1. 1State Forestry Administration Key Laboratory on Forest Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China;
    2Co-Innovation Centre for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
  • Received:2016-03-29 Online:2016-11-18 Published:2016-11-18
  • Contact: E-mail: shizm@caf.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31290223) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31570240).

Abstract: Based on three 1-hm2 plots of Jianfengling tropical montane rainforest on Hainan Island, 11 commom used functional traits of canopy trees were measured. After combining with topographical factors and trees census data of these three plots, we compared the impacts of weighted species abundance on two functional dispersion indices, mean pairwise distance (MPD) and mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD), by using single- and multi-dimensional traits, respectively. The relationship between functional richness of the forest canopies and species abundance was analyzed. We used a null model approach to explore the variations in standardized size effects of MPD and MNTD, which were weighted by species abundance and eliminated the influences of species richness diffe-rences among communities, and assessed functional diversity patterns of the forest canopies and their responses to local habitat heterogeneity at community’s level. The results showed that variation in MPD was greatly dependent on the dimensionalities of functional traits as well as species abundance. The correlations between weighted and non-weighted MPD based on different dimensional traits were relatively weak (R=0.359-0.628). On the contrary, functional traits and species abundance had relatively weak effects on MNTD, which brought stronger correlations between weighted and non-weighted MNTD based on different dimensional traits (R=0.746-0.820). Functional dispersion of the forest canopies were generally overestimated when using non-weighted MPD and MNTD. Functional richness of the forest canopies showed an exponential relationship with species abundance (F=128.20; R2=0.632; AIC=97.72; P<0.001), which might exist a species abundance threshold value. Patterns of functional diversity of the forest canopies based on different dimensional functional traits and their habitat responses showed variations in some degree. Forest canopies in the valley usually had relatively stronger biological competition, and functional diversity was higher than expected functional diversity randomized by null model, which indicated dispersed distribution of functional traits among canopy tree species in this habitat. However, the functional diversity of the forest canopies tended to be close or lower than randomization in the other habitat types, which demonstrated random or clustered distribution of the functional traits among canopy tree species.