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Coupling spectral and resource-use complementarity in experimental grassland and forest communities.

Authors :
Schweiger AK
Cavender-Bares J
Kothari S
Townsend PA
Madritch MD
Grossman JJ
Gholizadeh H
Wang R
Gamon JA
Source :
Proceedings. Biological sciences [Proc Biol Sci] 2021 Sep 08; Vol. 288 (1958), pp. 20211290. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Sep 01.
Publication Year :
2021

Abstract

Reflectance spectra provide integrative measures of plant phenotypes by capturing chemical, morphological, anatomical and architectural trait information. Here, we investigate the linkages between plant spectral variation, and spectral and resource-use complementarity that contribute to ecosystem productivity. In both a forest and prairie grassland diversity experiment, we delineated n -dimensional hypervolumes using wavelength bands of reflectance spectra to test the association between the spectral space occupied by individual plants and their growth, as well as between the spectral space occupied by plant communities and ecosystem productivity. We show that the spectral space occupied by individuals increased with their growth, and the spectral space occupied by plant communities increased with ecosystem productivity. Furthermore, ecosystem productivity was better explained by inter-individual spectral complementarity than by the large spectral space occupied by productive individuals. Our results indicate that spectral hypervolumes of plants can reflect ecological strategies that shape community composition and ecosystem function, and that spectral complementarity can reveal resource-use complementarity.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1471-2954
Volume :
288
Issue :
1958
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Proceedings. Biological sciences
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
34465243
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1290