Soil heterogeneity is at a high level in the karst areas, which resulted from the complex habitat. On the one hand, plants have some adaptive strategies to such special habitats by forming certain morphological and physiological characteristics, which result in higher diversity of functional traits. One the other hand, plants improve the physical and chemical properties of soil through a series of life activities. The interactions between plants and soil drive ecosystem structure and function and its responses to global climate change. Here, we summarized the characteristics of soil hete-rogeneity in the karst areas, and reviewed the response of plant functional traits to soil and the feedback of plants to soil. It revealed the coupling mechanism between plants and soil in karst eco-system. We provided a future outlook, including future research contents and directions based on the current research status in this field, which aimed to provide theoretical reference for maintaining the structural and functional stability of fragile karst ecosystems.
喀斯特地区复杂生境造成该地区土壤高度异质性,植被为适应特殊环境形成一定形态和生理结构特征,导致较高功能性状多样性。同时,植被又通过一系列生命活动改善了土壤的物理化学结构特征。植物与土壤之间的相互作用对研究生态系统的结构和功能及其对全球气候变化的响应具有重要作用。本文总结了喀斯特地区土壤异质性特征,概述了植物功能性状对异质土壤的响应及植物对土壤的反馈过程,揭示了喀斯特生态系统中植物-土壤耦合机制,并根据目前研究现状对该领域未来的研究内容和方向进行了展望,以期为喀斯特脆弱生态系统结构和功能稳定性维系提供科学参考。.
Keywords: global climatic change; karst ecosystem; plant functional trait; soil heterogeneity.