Summer Freezing Resistance: A Critical Filter for Plant Community Assemblies in Mediterranean High Mountains.

ABSTRACT: Assessing freezing community response and whether freezing resistance is related to other functional traits is essential for understanding alpine community assemblages, particularly in Mediterranean environments where plants are exposed to freezing temperatures and summer droughts. Thus, we characterized the leaf freezing resistance of 42 plant species in 38 plots at Sierra de Guadarrama (Spain) by measuring their ice nucleation temperature, freezing point (FP), and low-temperature damage (LT50), as well as determining their freezing resistance mechanisms (i.e., tolerance or avoidance). The community response to freezing was estimated for each plot as community weighted means (CWMs) and functional diversity (FD), and we assessed their relative importance with altitude. We established the r

SUBMITTER: Pescador DS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4761790 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature