Effects of neighborhood species and functional trait diversity on tree growth
About the Project
Tree growth responses to climate change profoundly affect the carbon budget of forest ecosystems and their climate feedback effects. While extensive research has been conducted on how climate change impacts tree growth, previous studies have predominantly focused on growth dynamics at the plot scale and the effects of climatic factors, largely overlooking the regulatory role of neighborhood species and functional trait diversity on individual tree growth. This knowledge gap arises from two main limitations: (1) a lack of mechanistic understanding of how species and functional trait diversity regulate individual tree growth, and (2) insufficient detailed multi-source data to accurately assess these regulatory effects and the resulting inter- and intraspecific growth differentiation.
This study aims to: 1) Characterize the spatial patterns of neighborhood species and functional trait diversity along the great climatic gradient in the eastern section of China's subhumid to semi-arid region, through large-scale surveys of forest community structure and species diversity, combined with measurements of functional traits across multiple tree species and multi-species tree-ring analysis; and 2) Reveal the regulatory mechanisms of neighborhood species and functional trait diversity on individual tree growth.
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