Relationship between soil properties and leaf functional traits in early secondary succession of tropical montane cloud forest

Recognizing soil properties associated with the plant strategy in relation to use and acquisition of resources during early secondary succession (ESS) is an important issue in plant ecology. We analyzed the relationship between 10 leaf functional traits (LFTs) and 17 soil properties including soil nutrients, transformation flows and pH along a plant chronosequence spanning first 40 years of ESS in a tropical mountain cloud forest. To recognize the multivariate variation of soil properties, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed. The first axis of PCA was mainly associated with soil pH, P, Ca, Mg, K, C:N and N transformation flow, and this first axis was tightly associated with vegetation ages. The community weighted mean of the LFTs was also associated with vegetation ages. In particular, leaf P declined while leaf density, C, C:P and N:P increased with vegetation ages. Our analyses suggest associations between soil properties (the first axis of the PCA) and the LFTs (leaf area, leaf thickness, leaf density, leaf C, leaf C:P and leaf N:P) over the plant chronosequence. A fast acquisition strategy was observed in the younger sites and a resource conservation strategy in the older sites. Our results highlight the possible importance of changes in soil properties along secondary succession on plant functional traits in tropical cloud forest.