Hydrological niche segregation of plant functional traits in an individual-based model

Maximiliane Marion Herberich, Sebastian Gayler, Madhur Anand and Katja Tielbörger

Ecological Modelling, 2017, vol. 356, issue C, 14-24

Abstract: Water is one of the major drivers determining distribution and abundance of plant species. Namely, plant species’ presence and location in the landscape can be explained using metrics of soil water because plant species are restricted to a species-specific range of soil water conditions, i.e. their hydrological niche. However, little is known about the specific traits that determine the hydrological niche of a plant species. To investigate the relationship between plant functional traits, community structure and hydrological niche segregation, we developed a new generic individual-based model PLANTHeR which describes plant functional trait abundance as a function solely of soil water potentials and individual behavior. An important innovation is that there are no a priori defined trade-offs so that the model is neither restricted to a certain set of species nor scaled to a specific ecosystem.

Keywords: Hydrological niche; Functional traits; Trade-offs; Self-thinning; Individual-based modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:356:y:2017:i:c:p:14-24

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2017.04.002

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