Turnover of plant trait hierarchies in simulated community assembly in response to fertility and disturbance

Except for deeply disturbed conditions, perennial plants are always superior. Tall canopy height is superior on fertile soil, as long as it is not mown monthly. High SLA is advantageous at fertile or ploughed sites. Life cycle and canopy height are always at the first two ranks of the functional hierarchy of traits. Our results concerning the advantageous trait states are in line with published field studies, except for the trait seed mass. Here LEGOMODEL predicts competitive advantage of small seeds under any treatment. The functional response hierarchy of traits presents a hypothesis to be refined by further field research as we know of no field study addressing this question.