Niche differentiation along multiple functional-trait dimensions contributes to high local diversity of Euphorbiaceae in a tropical tree assemblage

Understanding the mechanisms that drive community assembly in species-rich tropical forest remains a fundamental challenge in ecology. Here, we integrated multivariate functional trait dimensions, phylogeny, and metabolomics to test fundamental predictions concerning the role of differentiation with respect to abiotic and biotic niche axes in the maintenance of high local diversity of woody plants in the Euphorbiaceae.
We measured 40 functional traits related to resource acquisition, photosynthetic capacity, hydraulic efficiency, and secondary-metabolite profiles generated using untargeted metabolomics in all 26 Euphorbiaceae species in a 20-ha forest dynamics plot in tropical southwestern China. We examined the correlation structure of 40 traits using a trait networking approach. We coupled these traits with variation in soil nutrients, light environment, soil water content and herbivore pressure within the plot to assess niche differentiation in space. We compared phylogenetic signal ...