Why Are Widely Distributed Species Widely Distributed? Understanding From a Quantified Investment Acquisition Strategy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research on plant functional traits have advanced our understanding of plant investment acquisition strategies. However, it is still unknown how a plant investment acquisition strategy varies or how the relative position of plants on the leaf economic spectrum changes across different habitats. Therefore, we conducted the field experiments at two long‐term ecological research sites in Shandong and Xinjiang, China, in August 2023. Twenty‐two common species in both sites and four endemics in each site were selected for leaf gas exchange traits, leaf growth traits, and leaf nutrient trait measurements. We used two different methods to quantify the leaf economic spectrum, PCA quantification and functional area quantification. We found that the 22 common species had a significantly faster investment acquisition strategy than local endemics on the leaf economic spectrum. Besides, the plasticity of the 22 common species was not coupled with the plasticity of their investment acquisition strategy. According to our results, we quantified and constructed the leaf economic spectrum of the 30 woody plant species in Shandong and Xinjiang and discussed that high plasticity and fast investment acquisition strategy may be an ecological adaptation and distribution strategy for widely distributed species.

Keywords

• common species
• endemics
• functional area quantification
• leaf economic spectrum
• PCA quantification
• RDPI