caa a22 4500 605526591 CHVBK 20210128100804.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10531-015-0904-x doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10531-015-0904-x Functional ecology as a missing link for conservation of a resource-limited flora in the Atlantic forest [Elektronische Daten] [Luiza de Paula, Daniel Negreiros, Luísa Azevedo, Renato Fernandes, João Stehmann, Fernando Silveira] The Atlantic forest is among the hottest hotspots for biodiversity conservation. Within this biome, inselbergs are isolated granitic and gneiss rocks that rise sharply above the lowland surrounding forests. Due to prevailing stressful conditions and resource paucity of inselbergs, distinguished plant communities are formed in these rocky-associated vegetation, which comprise unusually high levels of endemic and threatened species. Here, we evaluated the importance of competitiveness:stress-tolerance:ruderalism ecological strategies in different vegetation patches on the inselberg, tested for a connection between patch structure and functional traits, and compared the variation in functional traits between native and an exotic species, which represents a major threat to inselberg communities. Despite the stressful conditions of inselbergs, we found a relatively high diversity of ecological strategies, but most species and patches lied between the S and C strategy. The invasive Melinis repens, in turn, was functionally distinctive from native communities, with the predominance of traits associated with ruderalism. We also found that most functional traits significantly correlated with at least one environmental driver, highlighting their role in structuring plant communities in this heterogeneous environment. Since inselberg patches were spatially heterogeneous, and the variation in resource availability implies in favouring different ecological strategies, some patch types were more invasive-prone than others. Our data provide significant advances for identifying the environmental drivers of biological invasion in resource-limited environments. We argue that further trait-based approaches will become critical for developing conservation and management strategies for inselberg plant communities, especially in the context of rapid habitat loss and fragmentation of the Atlantic forest. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2015 Comparative ecology nationallicence Ecological strategies nationallicence Inselberg nationallicence Leaf economics spectrum nationallicence Rocky outcrops nationallicence Trait-environment relationship nationallicence de Paula Luiza Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut Negreiros Daniel Departamento de Biologia Geral, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, Brazil aut Azevedo Luísa Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut Fernandes Renato Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut Stehmann João Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut Silveira Fernando Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut Biodiversity and Conservation Springer Netherlands 24/9(2015-09-01), 2239-2253 0960-3115 24:9<2239 2015 24 10531 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-0904-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-0904-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- de Paula Luiza Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Negreiros Daniel Departamento de Biologia Geral, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Azevedo Luísa Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Fernandes Renato Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Stehmann João Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Silveira Fernando Departamento de Botânica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, 30161-970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Biodiversity and Conservation Springer Netherlands 24/9(2015-09-01), 2239-2253 0960-3115 24:9<2239 2015 24 10531