UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO Biosciences Department Ph.D. course in Environmental Sciences XXXIII cycle Trait-based functional characterization of plant species and communities: trends and adaptions to environment in Alpine and European vegetation Tutor: prof. Marco Caccianiga prof. Bruno E.L. Cerabolini Candidate: Magda Zanzottera Academic year 2019/2020 This Ph.D. project was funded by FLA – Fondazione Lombardia per l’Ambiente, via University of Insubria (Varese), on account of the Regional Observatory for Biodiversity. Lab measurements and analyses were carried out with the Unit of Vegetation Ecology and Phytogeography of the Biotechnology and Life Sciences Department (DBSV) of the University of Insubria (Varese), under the supervision of prof. Bruno E.L. Cerabolini. 1 CONTENT CHAPTER 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5 1. Functional approach to plant ecology ........................................................................................ 5 2. Plant functional traits .................................................................................................................. 5 2.1 Global spectrum of plant form and function ........................................................................ 6 2.2 CSR plant adaptive strategies ............................................................................................... 7 3. Trait - environment relations ....................................................................................................... 9 4. Functional diversity ................................................................................................................... 10 5. Functional ecology and phytosociology .................................................................................... 12 6. References ................................................................................................................................. 13 Project aims .................................................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 2 - The contribution of leaf sulfur content to the leaf economics spectrum explained by plant adaptive strategies ................................................................. 17 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 18 2. Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 20 2.1 Dataset ................................................................................................................................ 20 2.2 Statistical analysis............................................................................................................... 22 3. Results ....................................................................................................................................... 23 4. Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 29 5. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 33 6. References ................................................................................................................................. 33 7. Supplementary material ............................................................................................................. 38 CHAPTER 3 – Plant trait variation along environmental indicators to infer global change impacts ................................................................................................................... 41 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 42 2. Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 44 2.1 Plant Traits (PTs) ................................................................................................................ 44 2.2 Environmental Indicators (EIs) .......................................................................................... 45 2.3 Data analysis ....................................................................................................................... 46 3. Results ....................................................................................................................................... 47 4. Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 52 2 5. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 56 6. References ................................................................................................................................. 56 7. Supplementary material ............................................................................................................. 60 CHAPTER 4 – Alien plant species invade by occupying similar functional spaces to native species ...................................................................................................................... 62 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 63 2. Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 65 2.1 Study area ........................................................................................................................... 65 2.2 Dataset ................................................................................................................................ 65 2.3 Phylogenetic tree ................................................................................................................ 66 3. Results ....................................................................................................................................... 68 4. Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 72 5. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 76 6. References ................................................................................................................................. 77 7. Supplementary material ............................................................................................................. 81 CHAPTER 5 – Soil-plant interactions in a pasture of the Italian Alps ...................................... 83 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 84 2. Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 85 2.1 Study site ............................................................................................................................ 85 2.2 Vegetation sampling ........................................................................................................... 87 2.3 Soil sampling and laboratory analysis ................................................................................ 87 2.4 Statistical analysis............................................................................................................... 89 3. Results ....................................................................................................................................... 91 3.1 Vegetation ........................................................................................................................... 91 3.2 Soil ...................................................................................................................................... 93 3.3 Soil-plant interactions ......................................................................................................... 95 4. Discussion ............................................................................................................................... 100 5. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 102 6. References ............................................................................................................................... 102 7. Supplementary material ........................................................................................................... 105 3 CHAPTER 6 – Community – level variation in plant functional traits and ecological strategies shapes habitat structure along succession gradients in alpine environment .. 107 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 108 2. Methods ..................................................................................................................................