Functional diversity, soil features and community functioning: a test in a cerrado site

Abstract

Community functioning may be affected by functional diversity, which measures the extent of complementarity in resource use. We tested whether there was a relationship between functional diversity of woody species and community functioning on a fine scale, using FD as a measure of functional diversity and litter decomposition rate as a surrogate for community functioning. We measured eight functional traits from a woodland cerrado community in southeastern Brazil. Then, we tested the correlation between FD and the decomposition rate taking into account differences in soil features and between decomposition rate and each trait separately. The decomposition rate was related to the aluminium and phosphorus concentration in soil, but not to FD, pointing out that functional diversity was not a good predictor of community functioning. There was a non-significant relationship between FD and the decomposition rate even when we considered each trait separately. Most studies in the relationships between biodiversity and community functioning on fine scales were carried out by experimental manipulation of diversity and in temperate regions. We carried out this fine scale study as a mensurative experiment and in a tropical savanna. Our findings indicated that the relationship between biodiversity and community functioning is not as straightforward as usually assumed.