Urbanization-driven habitat fragmentation threatens ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) in remnant forests through biodiversity erosion. This study investigates the effects of habitat fragmentation on multiple ecosystem functions through analyses of fragmentation metrics, soil properties, and biodiversity across 30 remnant forest patches in Guiyang, China. Key findings reveal distinct drivers in edge and interior habitats. In edge habitats, the proportion and aggregation of impervious surfaces are key predictors of carbon dynamics and nutrient availability. In interior habitats, the contrast of the patch with the surrounding matrix is significantly correlated with carbon pools and phosphorus availability. The regulation of biodiversity involves distinct habitat differentiation, whereby microbial diversity governs pathogen control and carbon turnover at the edges, and plant diversity regulates enzyme activity and pathogen suppression trade-offs in the interior areas. Distinct interactions among ecosystem services are present and include pathogen defense synergies via shared microbial antagonistic networks alongside plant productivity (PP) that enhance microbial carbon pools through root exudates while concurrently boosting virulence control via antimicrobial traits. Conversely, trade-offs arise from resource allocation conflicts in which photosynthate competition occurs between plant growth and organic decomposition as well as opposing moisture requirements for pathogen suppression, which requires low humidity vs. water regulation (WR) demanding high retention. Crucially, habitat fragmentation metrics surpass soil properties and biodiversity in explaining overall EMF variation. Large patches with high core-to-edge ratios suppress edge-habitat EMF through extended disturbance interfaces. The scale-habitat differentiation effects identified in this study can inform conservation priorities focused on safeguarding clustered high-functioning small patches to leverage edge benefits and implementing dispersed development buffers with minimal impervious aggregation to protect interior habitat stability against landscape-scale stressors.
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Open Access
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With the expansion of urban areas, the remnants of forested areas play a crucial role in preserving biodiversity in urban environments. This study aimed to explore the impact of spatiotemporal urban expansion on the networks of leaf traits in woody plants within remnant forest patches, thereby enhancing our understanding of plant adaptive strategies and contributing to the conservation of urban biodiversity.
Our study examined woody plants within 120 sample plots across 15 remnant forest patches in Guiyang, China. We constructed leaf trait networks (LTNs) based on 26 anatomical, structural, and compositional leaf traits and assessed the effects of the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban expansion on these LTNs.
Our results indicate that shrubs within these patches have greater average path lengths and diameters than trees. With increasing urban expansion intensity, we observed a rise in the edge density of the LTN-shrubs. Additionally, modularity within the networks of shrubs decreased as road density and urban expansion intensity increased, and increases in the average path length and average clustering coefficient for shrubs were observed with a rise in the composite terrain complexity index. Notably, patches subjected to 'leapfrog' expansion exhibited greater average patch length and diameter than those experiencing edge growth. Stomatal traits were found to have high degree centrality within these networks, signifying their substantial contribution to multiple functions. In urban remnant forests, shrubs bolster their resilience to variable environmental pressures by augmenting the complexity of their leaf trait networks.
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