Prediction of specific leaf area distribution in plant communities along a soil resource gradient using trait trade-offs in a pattern-oriented modelling approach

The functional-trait approach to communities focuses on the distribution of traits and on their variations in communities along environmental gradients. We devised a pattern-oriented demarche to predict specific leaf area (SLA) distribution in three plant communities located along an environmental gradient governed by soil fertility and nutrient stress in subalpine gypsic dolines. An individual-based model incorporating physiological mechanisms simulated the growth of thirty functional groups varying in leaf traits (SLA and correlated leaf life-span) and nitrogen (N) stress tolerance which competed with their neighbours for access to light and nitrogen. The SLAs of these groups encompassed the range of SLAs measured in the sites. Leaf traits governed the daily temperature-dependent processes involved in capturing resources (N and light), biomass synthesis and loss, and the value of the parameter Nc governed the decrease in growth rate of organisms according to a decline in N supply. Biomass drove the comp...