Octavio-Aguilar Pablo, Martínez-Falcón Ana Paola, Sánchez-González Arturo, Rojas-Martínez Alberto, Meerow W. Alan, Ramírez-Bautista Aurelio, Ortiz-Pulido Raul, Caballero-Cruz Pablo, Hernández-Rico Griselda Nallely, Berriozabal-Islas Christian Said,
2019
Revistas indexadas
Influence of microhabitat on functional attributes of two columnar cacti with different distribution ranges
vol-162
ISSN: 1095-922X
CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA
BOTANICA
ECOLOGIA VEGETAL
Microhabitat variations condition the ability of plant populations to colonize and recruit. Normally cacti species need nurse conditions for establishment of seedlings, resulting in patches under forest cover and increasing the contrasting conditions between slopes with different solar exposure and humidity percentage. We hypothesize that Cephalocereus senilis, a species with restricted range, will have constant functional attributes at each slope and therefore greater sensitivity to environmental variation than Stenocereus dumortieri, a species of wide distribution. This study contrasts microhabitat response of two cacti with different distribution ranges using several functional traits: spatial association pattern, variation in morphological attributes, habitat disturbance conditions and community association. The main contributions of this work are: i) use of a multivariate approach that allows observation of variation patterns between different conditions of exposure and ii) contrast of wide and restricted distribution species in response to dry environmental requirements. The functional attributes of C. senilis are constant (density, morphology, disturbance conditions and associated vegetation), with the exception of the spatial arrangement of individuals, clumped towards an eastern orientation and regularly spaced on the western orientation. In contrast, S. dumortieri has different functional attributes, performing better on unexposed hillsides (aggregation radii smaller, highest density, larger plants, more preserved environment and greater diversity of associated vegetation). Our results are an example of the general response to micro-environmental variation of wide (tolerance) and restricted (avoidance) species in dry environments at both the population and community levels, representing an evolutionary evidence of adaption divergence
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