Which plant strategies are related to dominanсе in alpine communities?
aLomonosov Moscow State University, Biological Faculty, Department of Ecology and Plant Geography
Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991 Russia
bState Budget Professional Educational Organization “Technological Colledge”
Svobody St., 62A, Cherkessk, 369000 Russia
cTeberda State Biosphere Reserve
Baduksky Lane, 1, Teberda, 369210 Republic of Karachai-Cherkess
*e-mail: k.v.dudova@yandex.ru
Proportional adherence to Grime’s CSR strategies now can be quantitatively estimated by simple leaf traits. Traits of different strategies may be under natural selection and serve as important features for dominance in natural plant communities. Alpine plants are traditionally considered as stress-tolerators (S) adapted to low temperatures and poor soils. However, alpine communities differ significantly with regard to their production. We hypothesize that C-strategy is more expressed in relatively productive alpine meadows, whereas Rstrategy is more important in snowbed communities with short growing season. Species aboveground biomass was studied in four communities at the same altitude (alpine lichen heath – ALH, Festuca varia grassland – FVG, Geranium-Hedysarum meadow – GHM, and snowbed community – SBC). Proportional adherence to CSR components was estimated on the basis of three leaf traits – dry mass, fresh (water saturated) mass, and leaf area for all vascular plants in the communities. We calculated community weighted means (CWM) for each strategy for studied communities. Our hypothesis was supported. Dominants were more stress-tolerant in ALH and FVG than other species, but more C-strategies were observed in productive GHM. Proportional adherence of C and S strategies were in strong correspondence with relative importance of competition at the community level. The competition was the most important in productive GHM where C-strategy CWM is the biggest, but it was least important in FVG where S-strategy CWM is the biggest.
