Tree growth-forms reveal dominant browsers shaping the vegetation

IF 4.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ECOLOGY Functional Ecology Pub Date : 2024-08-01 DOI:10.1111/1365-2435.14623

Marcin Churski, Dries P. J. Kuijper, Katharina Semmelmayer, William J. Bond, Joris P. G. M. Cromsigt, Yan Wang, Tristan Charles-Dominique

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树木的生长形态揭示了影响植被的主要食草动物

植物在极端环境条件下会采用特殊的生长形式。在这项研究中，我们描述了一种由大型哺乳动物食草动物诱导的独特木本植物生长形态，并讨论了这种生长形态可能是在食草动物驱动的生态系统中作为一种逃离浏览器区的策略而进化出来的。我们分析了波兰温带 Białowieża 森林中三种欧亚带刺树种（Malus sylvestris、Prunus cerasifera 和 Pyrus communis）的主要建筑和形态属性（分枝和刺密度、树体尺寸、花和果的存在）对大型食草动物不同程度的啃食的反应。在高采食压力下，被研究的树木表现出两种不同的树冠形式：底部不育部分发展成枝叶茂密、荆棘密度高的结构（"笼状"），上部生殖部分摆脱了食草动物的控制（"逃逸状"）。笼状结构的大小通过增加鹿的觅食时间和提高鹿的咬伤率来影响赤鹿（Cervus elaphus）的觅食行为。笼子开始逃逸的高度及其直径与马鹿的觅食范围相匹配。综述。我们认为，这种木质生长形式在景观中出现的频率和笼子的尺寸可以说明近期食草动物的类型和强度。此外，其独特的诱导性表明，这种生长形式并不是最近在人为压力下出现的，而可能是古代食草动物影响的遗留物。观察证据表明，这种生长形式出现在全球多个由食草动物驱动的系统中，可用于确定控制这些生态系统植被结构的主要食草动物。在期刊博客上免费阅读本文的通俗摘要。

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来源期刊

Functional Ecology 环境科学-生态学

CiteScore

9.00

自引率

1.90%

发文量

243

审稿时长

4 months

期刊介绍： Functional Ecology publishes high-impact papers that enable a mechanistic understanding of ecological pattern and process from the organismic to the ecosystem scale. Because of the multifaceted nature of this challenge, papers can be based on a wide range of approaches. Thus, manuscripts may vary from physiological, genetics, life-history, and behavioural perspectives for organismal studies to community and biogeochemical studies when the goal is to understand ecosystem and larger scale ecological phenomena. We believe that the diverse nature of our journal is a strength, not a weakness, and we are open-minded about the variety of data, research approaches and types of studies that we publish. Certain key areas will continue to be emphasized: studies that integrate genomics with ecology, studies that examine how key aspects of physiology (e.g., stress) impact the ecology of animals and plants, or vice versa, and how evolution shapes interactions among function and ecological traits. Ecology has increasingly moved towards the realization that organismal traits and activities are vital for understanding community dynamics and ecosystem processes, particularly in response to the rapid global changes occurring in earth’s environment, and Functional Ecology aims to publish such integrative papers.