Effects of disturbance frequency and severity on plant traits: an assessment across a temperate flora

(1) Recent analyses of plant traits across large sets of species have revolutionized our understanding of plant functional differentiation. However, understanding of ecological relevance of this differentiation is contingent upon knowledge of environmental preferences of species, namely along gradients of disturbance and productivity for which no quantitative data were available until recently. (2) We examined the relationships of key functional traits (life-history categories, leaf-height-seed traits, clonal growth and bud bank traits) in the herb-dominated flora of Central Europe to species niche positions along the gradients of disturbance frequency, disturbance severity and productivity. (3) Life-history categories and bud bank size showed the strongest response to disturbance and productivity, whereas relationship of leaf-height-seed traits were much weaker. A number of traits, including clonal growth form and bud bank size, showed significantly unimodal response to disturbance f...