Growth-competition-herbivore resistance trade-offs and the responses of alpine plant communities to climate change

1. Climate change is expected to modify current ecological conditions sustaining the coexistence of species within cold-adapted plant communities, by influencing species growth, modifying competition and levels of herbivory. Climate change will act upon the existing structure of communities, whose response should depend on the functional differences governing coexistence among alpine species. We postulated that a possible trade-off between (i) plant growth in response to temperature, (ii) plant competition, and (iii) resistance to herbivory, should modulate the rate of plant community turnover under climate change. 2. We reviewed the literature investigating functional traits variability along elevation gradients. Despite environmental filtering, our review indicates that interspecific plant functional variation within communities does not necessarily decrease with elevation. While the diversity of traits related to abiotic affinities or competition are well documented, the functional d...

1. 气候变化预计将改变维持冷适应植物群落内物种共存的现有生态条件，具体方式包括影响物种生长、调控种间竞争强度与植食作用（herbivory）水平。气候变化将作用于群落的现有结构，而群落的响应程度取决于调控高山物种共存的功能差异。我们提出如下假说：在（i）温度响应型植物生长、（ii）植物种间竞争，与（iii）植食抗性之间可能存在权衡（trade-off），该权衡将调控气候变化背景下植物群落的周转速率。2. 我们综述了沿海拔梯度（elevation gradients）探究功能性状（functional traits）变异的相关文献。尽管存在环境过滤（environmental filtering）效应，本综述结果显示，群落内植物的种间功能变异未必随海拔升高而降低。尽管与非生物亲和性或种间竞争相关的性状多样性已有充分研究，但功能……