The exploitation of pristine forests decreases their functional diversity and ecosystem service provision. The forest management strategies of some rural societies, though, can increase the provision of specific ecosystem services useful to the community. This is tightly linked to shifts in forest functional traits, but few studies have investigated the changes to multiple provisioning, cultural and regulating ecosystem services across a traditional forest management gradient. This can give insights into the role of traditional management systems in the conservation of ecosystem services. Here we used a plot network of 60 tropical dry forest plots in Sri Lanka to test whether different forest management intensities are linked to differences in forest functional traits and ecosystem service provision through different tree size classes. Furthermore, we investigated the link between functional traits and ecosystem service provision with both redundancy analysis and linear mixed models. We found that the most intensely managed forest plots had some early successional traits such as light wood, small seeds and large leaves but, unexpectedly, taller trees than the least intensely managed plots. The intensely and moderately managed plots had a greater abundance of species delivering cultural and provisioning services than the least managed plots. We found significant links between the provision of construction services and mean tree height, and the delivery of cultural services and wood density. The links between functional traits and ecosystem services were clearest for individuals smaller than 10 cm DBH. Overall, the forest use and management by this rural community increased ecosystem provisioning services. For the first time we have characterised different links between species’ functional traits and the ecosystem services they provide in a tropical dry forest. We highlight that the differences across forest management intensities were clearest for trees in the smaller cohorts, which are generally ignored by many researches. Similar studies will identify relevant functional traits that will help discover new species providing key ecosystem services. Understanding the interactions between rural societies and the forests they manage will foster the creation of guidelines for sustainably enhancing forest cultural and provisioning services.

中文翻译：

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通过热带干燥森林的管理梯度将植物性状与生态系统服务提供联系起来

对原始森林的开发减少了其功能多样性和生态系统服务的提供。不过，一些农村社会的森林管理战略可以增加对社区有用的特定生态系统服务的提供。这与森林功能特征的变化密切相关，但很少有研究调查传统森林管理梯度中多种供应、文化和调节生态系统服务的变化。这可以深入了解传统管理系统在保护生态系统服务中的作用。在这里，我们使用了斯里兰卡 60 个热带干燥森林样地的样地网络来测试不同的森林管理强度是否与通过不同树木尺寸类别提供的森林功能特征和生态系统服务的差异相关。此外，我们通过冗余分析和线性混合模型研究了功能特征与生态系统服务提供之间的联系。我们发现，管理最严格的林地具有一些早期演替特征，例如木材轻、种子小、叶子大，但出乎意料的是，树木比管理最不严格的地块更高。与管理程度最低的地块相比，管理程度较高和管理程度较低的地块提供文化和供给服务的物种更为丰富。我们发现建筑服务的提供和平均树高、文化服务的提供和木材密度之间存在显着联系。对于胸径小于 10 厘米的个体，功能性状和生态系统服务之间的联系最为明显。总体而言，该农村社区的森林利用和管理增加了生态系统供应服务。我们首次描述了热带干燥森林中物种的功能特征与其提供的生态系统服务之间的不同联系。我们强调，森林管理强度之间的差异对于较小群体中的树木来说最为明显，而许多研究通常忽略了这一点。类似的研究将确定相关的功能特征，这将有助于发现提供关键生态系统服务的新物种。了解农村社会与其管理的森林之间的相互作用将有助于制定可持续加强森林文化和供应服务的指导方针。