Plant Functional Diversity Drives Ecosystem Functions More Strongly than Species Diversity in East Dongting Lake Wetlands, China
Abstract
As the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem function has long been a contentious issue in ecological research, and wetlands globally are under severe threat, our study focused on the East Dongting Lake, a significant wetland in China. Subsequently, we employed correlation analysis and other refined methods to probe the linkage between plant species diversity, plant functional diversity and ecosystem functionality. Factor analysis was utilized to pinpoint the crucial influencing elements, and a random forest model was established to quantify and confirm the effects of various diversity components on the ecosystem. The findings indicated that forestland and marshland exhibited the highest levels of plant diversity, whereas cultivated land showed the lowest. Interestingly, an enhancement in plant community functional diversity was found to be more effective in boosting ecosystem functionality than an increase in species diversity. The ecosystem function of the East Dongting Lake wetland was driven mainly by the selection effect, which supported the “mass ratio hypothesis”. In addition, the degree of dominance, measured by the community-weighted mean, more effectively explained the ecosystem function of the wetland, therefore, the functional traits of dominant species should be prioritized in wetland management, restoration, and conservation.