The role of environmental filtration in shaping the developmental relationship and functional configuration of tree species systems.

The mechanism of community construction and species coexistence is determined by a variety of ecological processes.
previous studies have confirmed the importance of environmental filtration processes in affecting community building and species coexistence.
, however, how environmental filtration affects species in the community, thus affecting the pattern of species coexistence is rarely reported.
functional features of species are the basis for the formation of species ecological strategies, and different species adapt to the environment with different functional patterns.
species with similar functional characteristics have similar habitat requirements, while species with similar kinship have similar functional characteristics under the premise of conservative evolution of the characteristics.
refore, environmental factors affect the coexistence of community species by jointly screening the kinship and functional character of the species, shaping the pattern of the development relationship and functional configuration of the community tree species system.
To validate this hypothesis, Mengesha Asefa, a phD student in the Forest Community Structure, Function and Dynamics Group of the Xishuangbana Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is based on a 20-hectare dynamic monitoring sample of the Xishuangbana Tropical Seasonal Rainforest under the guidance of mentor and researcher Cao Min and Associate Researcher Yang Jie. The relationship between species system development and key functional characteristics data, combined with the spatial distribution of species and environmental factors, examine which groups and characteristic combinations in the community are filtered by the environment at a specific spatial scale, and reveal in depth how the environmental filtration process shapes the development relationship and functional configuration pattern of the community tree species system, with a view to clarifying the mechanism of species coexistence in the community.
study found that the soil nutrients, as an environmental filter, have a scale dependence effect and play an important role in the spatial distribution and characteristic combination of species on the small and medium scales.
species in the soil environment is affected by its systematic developmental relationship and combination of functional characteristics.
distribution of functional characteristic combinations is a trade-off between resource acquisition and utilization strategies in the environment.
filtration of the combination of class groups and features in the soil environment shows that the differentiation of functional features is an important mechanism for the coexistence of species in the tropical forest samples of Xishuangbana.
results of the study, published online in Scientific Reports, are based on environmental filtering structures tree functional traits and lineages across space in tropical tree assemblages.
The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31400362 and 31670442), the National Major Scientific Research Program (2014CB954104), the Western Light Talent Program, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Youth Promotion Association Fund (2016352) and the Yunnan Applied Basic Research Program (2014GA003).
.