3.4 Environmental and spatial effects on functional traits and
phylogenetic compositions
The results of variation partitioning showed that the pure spatial
factors (C) explained a higher variation in each functional trait at
community-level than pure environmental factors (A), except for
LPc and LN:LPc (Fig. 4). Environmental
and spatial factors comprehensively accounted for 63.38% of the total
variation in all community-level functional traits and 47.96% of the
phylogenetic structures. Meanwhile, the contribution of the pure
environment and the combined effect of environment and space (B) to the
phylogenetic structure were both significantly higher than those of the
community-level functional traits. However, for each community-level
trait, pure spatial variables explained 52.06%, 41.56%, and 37.07%
variations of the LDMCc, SLAc, and
LCc, respectively. The pure environment could explain
18.48% of the variation in LNc at most, whereas it
showed no influence on LCc, LN:LPc, and
LC:LNc. The combined effect of environment and space on
LTc was the highest (13.75%), but it had no effect on
LCc and LNc (Fig. 4).