Plant acquisitive strategies promote resistance and temporal stability of semiarid grasslands
Among ecologists, it is widely believed that conservative growth strategies of plants are crucial for sustaining ecosystem stability, while the potential stabilising role of acquisitive strategies has received little attention. We investigated the relationships between plant traits and three stabili...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) |
| Repositorio: | Docta Complutense |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/120713 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/120713 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | 574.4 581.5 551.583 Acquisitive strategies Conservative strategies Drought Plant functional traits Semi-arid grasslands Stability Ecología (Biología) Botánica (Biología) Medio ambiente natural 2417.13 Ecología Vegetal 2417.19 Fisiología Vegetal 2502.03 Bioclimatología |
| Sumario: | Among ecologists, it is widely believed that conservative growth strategies of plants are crucial for sustaining ecosystem stability, while the potential stabilising role of acquisitive strategies has received little attention. We investigated the relationships between plant traits and three stability dimensions—temporal stability, resistance and resilience—using two complementary datasets from drought-affected semi-arid grasslands: a temporal plant community survey from a single site and a 1000-km transect survey with satellite-derived productivity estimates. We found strikingly consistent patterns from the two datasets, with grasslands dominated by acquisitive strategies exhibiting greater resistance and temporal stability of productivity. Acquisitive strategies enhance stability by facilitating drought escape and avoidance, rather than drought tolerance typically associated with conservative strategies. These results highlight the important but underappreciated role of acquisitive strategies in enhancing ecosystem resistance to disturbances and maintaining temporal stability in semi-arid grasslands. |
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