Degradation shifts plant communities from S- to R-strategy in an alpine meadow, Tibetan Plateau

Highlights: • S-selected species dominate in non-degraded and degraded alpine grasslands. • Grassland degradation shifts plant communities from S- to R-strategy. • Sedges/grasses exhibit stronger S strategy to tolerate degraded-stressful conditions. • Forbs adapt to resource deficient and disturbed conditions with flexible R-strategy. The replacement of dominant sedges/grasses with secondary forbs is common in alpine rangelands, but the underlying plant ecological strategies and their relevance to leaf traits and their variabilities of different plant functional groups remain largely unknown. Here, we measured key leaf traits and analyzed the competitor, stress-tolerator and ruderal (CSR) strategies of major species with different functional groups (sedges, grasses and forbs) in an alpine meadow along a degradation gradient on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results indicated that S-selected species were dominant in both non-degraded (C:S:R = 1:95:4%) and severely degraded (C:S:R = 2:87:11%) meadows. However, there was a shift from S- to R-strategy in the communities after rangeland degradation. More specifically, sedges and grasses with a "conservative" strategy maintained stronger S-strategy to tolerate degraded and stressful conditions. In contrast, forbs with an "opportunistic" strategy (increase 9.5% in R-score) tended to adapt to degraded stages. Moreover, 51.1% and 23.9% of the increased R-scores in forbs were accounted by leaf mass per area and specific leaf area, respectively. Generally, higher leaf water and nitrogen contents coupled with larger variations in leaf traits and flexible SR strategies in forbs enabled them to capitalize on lower soil water and nutrient availability. Our findings highlighted that the contrasting strategies of plant species in response to the decrease in available resources might lead to niche expansion of secondary forbs and loss of diversity in the degraded alpine meadow. The emerging alternative stable states in the degraded rangelands might bring about a predicament for rangeland restoration.