Trait space of rare plants in a fire-dependent ecosystem
© 2016 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.
| Publié dans: | Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology. - 1989. - 31(2017), 4 vom: 30. Aug., Seite 903-911 |
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| Auteur principal: | |
| Autres auteurs: | , , |
| Format: | Article en ligne |
| Langue: | English |
| Publié: |
2017
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| Accès à la collection: | Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology |
| Sujets: | Journal Article características funcionales de las plantas contenido de materia seca de las hojas leaf dry matter content longleaf pine savanna plant functional traits rareza de especies sabana de pino de hoja larga species rarity specific leaf area |
| Résumé: | © 2016 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. The causes of species rarity are of critical concern because of the high extinction risk associated with rarity. Studies examining individual rare species have limited generality, whereas trait-based approaches offer a means to identify functional causes of rarity that can be applied to communities with disparate species pools. Differences in functional traits between rare and common species may be indicative of the functional causes of species rarity and may therefore be useful in crafting species conservation strategies. However, there is a conspicuous lack of studies comparing the functional traits of rare species and co-occurring common species. We measured 18 important functional traits for 19 rare and 134 common understory plant species from North Carolina's Sandhills region and compared their trait distributions to determine whether there are significant functional differences that may explain species rarity. Flowering, fire, and tissue-chemistry traits differed significantly between rare and common, co-occurring species. Differences in specific traits suggest that fire suppression has driven rarity in this system and that changes to the timing and severity of prescribed fire may improve conservation success. Our method provides a useful tool to prioritize conservation efforts in other systems based on the likelihood that rare species are functionally capable of persisting |
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| Description: | Date Completed 04.01.2018 Date Revised 02.12.2018 published: Print-Electronic Citation Status MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1523-1739 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/cobi.12867 |