Spatial distribution of functional traits of bryophytes along environmental gradients in an Atlantic Forest remnant in north-eastern Brazil

ABSTRACT

Background: Functional trait-based approaches have been used to identify patterns of plant species diversity and composition related to environmental variability/changes. Bryophytes are rapidly affected by perturbations and thus their traits and distribution are expected to show well-defined relationships with environmental variability.

Aim: To quantify the impacts of fragmentation on the diversity and structure of epiphytic bryophytes to vertical and horizontal environmental gradients in an Atlantic Forest remnant.

Methods: Six functional traits related to water relations and light tolerance were recorded and one of them, the leaf lobule area in liverworts, was selected for morphometric measurements along the gradients analysed. Functional diversity and composition metrics of bryophytes along gradients were compared.

Results: Functional diversity changed little along the vertical and horizontal gradients. Conversely, the functional composition of traits changed markedly. Traits related to water storage, such as the presence and area of lobules, and to protection against excess light incidence, such as dark pigments, were more numerous in the canopy and at the fragment edge.

Conclusions: Functional composition is more correlated with the vertical and horizontal gradients than functional diversity. The lobule of liverworts stood out as the most relevant trait to explain the adaptive strategies of bryophytes.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental filters
• fragmentation
• functional diversity and composition
• liverworts
• microclimatic gradient

Acknowledgements

We thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq - National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) for the master’s scholarship awarded to the first author. This research was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES - Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). We also thank Julia Sfair, Sylvia Mota, Elâine Ribeiro and Lucas da Costa, for their valuable contributions during the development of this research, and two anonymous reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief Laszlo Nagy for his suggestions to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico.

Notes on contributors

João P. S. Souza

João P. S. Souza is interested in the functional ecology of bryophytes in the Atlantic Forest. This article is part of his master’s thesis.

Mércia P. P. Silva

Mércia P. P. Silva’s research interests include taxonomic and functional diversity of bryophytes, community ecology and ecology of fragmented habitats.

Kátia C. Pôrto

Kátia C. Pôrto works on the diversity and ecology of bryophytes, with special interest in reproduction of tropical species.