Speaker
Description
Post-disturbance forest sites represent a mosaic of microclimates depending on deadwood and understory characteristics. At the same time, early-successional plant communities vary in their species and functional composition. However, how fine-scale microclimatic variation drives trait patterns in this context remains insufficiently explored. Here, we quantified the short-term effect of microclimate on bootstrapped community-level plant functional traits. Additionally, we compared intraspecific leaf trait variability in the most frequent species Avenella flexuosa. Our experiment consists of intact forest stands and three post-disturbance treatments: salvage logging, high stump retention, and snag island retention (total n = 79) across lower Mountain ranges in Central Europe. We surveyed herbaceous plants in 0.79 m² plots. We measured vegetative height, specific leaf area (SLA), and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) for each species with cover > 3% and up to 3 individuals per species. TMS-4 dataloggers at the plot center were used to continuously measure soil moisture and temperatures. We assess the role of microclimate changes as important drivers of trait variability. We further evaluate whether changes in microclimate affect plant functional traits more strongly via intraspecific variability than species turnover in species-poor early-successional communities. Our results show increasing LDMC values from intact stands to salvage logging plots, indicating plasticity in response to light availability. In conclusion, our results emphasize the need for site-specific trait measurements to accurately reveal the impacts of environmental change and to link traits to ecosystem functions.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| FOR TALKS: Poster Presentation Option | Yes, I’m willing to present as a poster. |