Environmental factors driving the succession and differentiation of ecological strategy spectrum in tropical lowland rain forest

Abstract

We aimed to determine the environmental driving factors underpinning successional changes in a tropical lowland rain forest in Hainan. Using hectare scale plots, we evaluated woody plant community composition and collected a variety of environmental variables. We found that the ecological strategy spectrum of communities in the four succession stages differentiated along the C-S axis, but no major communities were found in the R strategy group. The spectrum of ecological strategy of different communities is significantly different with succession, among which C strategy group is on the rise, S strategy group is on the decline, and the intermediate (INT) group strategy is on the rise after the first decline. For the C strategy group, population density and canopy openness explain most of the differences. The S strategy group are explained by slope and population density, while the first two explanatory factors of intermediate strategy group differences are slope and soil total potassium content. The change of plant ecological strategy is the result of comprehensive action of biotic factors, topographic factors and soil factors, among which biotic factors play a leading role.