| Title: |
Climatic and soil factors explain the two-dimensional spectrum of global plant trait variation |
| Authors: |
Joswig, Julia S.; Wirth, Christian; Schuman, Meredith C.; Kattge, Jens; Reu, Björn; Wright, Ian J.; Sippel, Sebastian D.; Rüger, Nadja; Richter, Ronny; Schaepman, Michael E.; van Bodegom, Peter M.; Cornelissen, J. H. C.; Díaz, Sandra; Hattingh, Wesley N.; Kramer, Koen; Lens, Frederic; Niinemets, Ülo; Reich, Peter B.; Reichstein, Markus; Römermann, Christine; Schrodt, Franziska; Anand, Madhur; Bahn, Michael; Byun, Chaeho; Campetella, Giandiego; Cerabolini, Bruno E. L.; Craine, Joseph M.; Gonzalez-Melo, Andres; Gutiérrez, Alvaro G.; He, Tianhua; Higuchi, Pedro; Jactel, Hervé; Kraft, Nathan J. B.; Minden, Vanessa; Onipchenko, Vladimir; Peñuelas, Josep; Pillar, Valério D.; Sosinski, Ênio; Soudzilovskaia, Nadejda A.; Weiher, Evan; Mahecha, Miguel D. |
| Contributors: |
EC | Horizon 2020 Framework Programme; NOMIS Stiftung; NOMIS grant Remotely Sensing Ecological Genomics to M. Schaepman; Max-Planck-Gesellschaft; C. Wirth acknowledges the support of the Max Planck Society via its fellowship programme.; Department of Education and Training | Australian Research Council; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken; The trait data supplied was co-funded by the EU-FP7-KBBE project: BACCARA - Biodiversity and climate change, a risk analysis; National Research Foundation of Korea; Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico; Fundação Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; Russian Science Foundation; Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek |
| Source: |
Nature Ecology & Evolution ; volume 6, issue 1, page 36-50 ; ISSN 2397-334X |
| Publisher Information: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| Publication Year: |
2021 |
| Description: |
Plant functional traits can predict community assembly and ecosystem functioning and are thus widely used in global models of vegetation dynamics and land–climate feedbacks. Still, we lack a global understanding of how land and climate affect plant traits. A previous global analysis of six traits observed two main axes of variation: (1) size variation at the organ and plant level and (2) leaf economics balancing leaf persistence against plant growth potential. The orthogonality of these two axes suggests they are differently influenced by environmental drivers. We find that these axes persist in a global dataset of 17 traits across more than 20,000 species. We find a dominant joint effect of climate and soil on trait variation. Additional independent climate effects are also observed across most traits, whereas independent soil effects are almost exclusively observed for economics traits. Variation in size traits correlates well with a latitudinal gradient related to water or energy limitation. In contrast, variation in economics traits is better explained by interactions of climate with soil fertility. These findings have the potential to improve our understanding of biodiversity patterns and our predictions of climate change impacts on biogeochemical cycles. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
English |
| DOI: |
10.1038/s41559-021-01616-8 |
| Availability: |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01616-8; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01616-8.pdf; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01616-8 |
| Rights: |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 ; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.69F00D34 |
| Database: |
BASE |