Does functional diversity influence slope stability? Investigating the spatial relationship between functional traits and landslide activity in a tropical mountainscape

Abstract

Ecosystem stability – the capacity of an ecosystem to return to an equilibrium state after disturbance – is strongly linked to functional diversity. There is increasing evidence that functional diversity reduces ecosystem vulnerability to disturbance and increase recovery. In humid, mountainous terrain, landsliding is a dominant disturbance that transforms substrates, species, and functions. Some studies have assessed the effect of plant taxonomic and functional diversity on landslide occurrence. However, these functional works are scarce. To fill this gap, we designed an integrative meta analysis study of the spatial variation of functional diversity, taking advantage of remote sensing tools to obtain continuous data about its influence on landslide occurrence to address three aims. 1) Characterize variation in plant taxonomic and functional diversity across landslides and the abiotic factors that modulate these patterns, 2) Investigate regional environmental drivers of species- and stand-level functional diversity in a tropical mountainscape, and 3) Investigate the relationships between functional diversity and landslide activity at regional scales We found two key results:1) Landslides contribute to regional diversity, and that contribution varies across time and biogeography, and 2) That landslides tend to occur in mountainous areas with intermediate taxonomic and low functional diversity.