Exploring the trait structure of grassland plant communities enhances our understanding of how these communities will respond to climate change and disturbances such as herbivory. The trait structure of a plant community was investigated in the Central Anatolian steppe, an ecoregion with high biodiversity that has been largely unexplored in terms of plant functional ecology. Fifty plant species in the community were measured across 9 plant traits, including several leaf traits (leaf area, leaf dry matter content, specific leaf area, leaf thickness, and leaf nitrogen content), two seed traits (seed mass and seed shape), as well as the plant height and stem specific density. The structure of the plant community was characterized to unveil the functional trait space present. Compared to other grassland communities globally, the plant community in the Central Anatolian steppe exhibited similar functional traits, representing a resource-conservative life history strategy as a whole community. This study represents an initial step towards addressing the significant gap in the literature concerning the Central Anatolian steppes. Further research, including and comparing more steppe habitats in the region, is strongly encouraged.
ÜLGEN et al. (Tue,) studied this question.