Local Light-Use-Driven Biological Assembly Caused by Logging Varies Upon Elevation-Mediated Nutrient-Acquisition Traits

The coevolutionary mechanisms underlying disturbance adaptation and spatiotemporal distinctions in floristic and microbial assembly remain unclear, especially in the context of light use and nutrient availability. We combined closely related edaphic properties and plant traits and microbial dimensions to establish composite proxies and investigated their responses to variable light and nutrient status along local-scale logging severity and elevation gradients. The highest-elevation sites were nutrient deficient and more dependent upon vegetation-microbial interactions than the lowest-elevation sites, which were characterized by greater microbially-mediated nutrient cycling activities and pronounced vegetation growth-survival trade-offs. Moreover, light-demanding and highly diversified exploitative traits, rather than conservative nutrient acquisition, were promoted by increasing logging severity. These findings demonstrate that the predictable driving forces affecting biological processes along disturbance and elevation gradients are in tandem but to different extents related to the spatial compartmentalization of light use and nutrient availability in forest ecosystems.