Naslov
Habitat-specificity of climate-trait relationships in vascular plants

Autori
Kambach, Stephan ; Sabatini, Francesco Maria ; Attorre, Fabio ; ... ; Stančić, Zvjezdana ; ... ; Bruelheide, Helge

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Abstracts book / - Madrid : International Association for Vegetation Science, Facultad de Farmacia – Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2022, 69-69

Skup
64th Symposium of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS2022)

Mjesto i datum
Madrid, Španjolska, 17.06.2022. - 01.07.2022

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
climate ; habitats ; traits

Sažetak
Ecological theory of environmental filtering predicts close local relationships between microclimatic gradients and functional traits. Yet, on the global scale, climatic gradients are only weakly related to the trait composition of local plant communities, suggesting additional non-climatic factors are at play. To shed more light on this, we may need to investigate climate-trait relationships in more narrowly defined habitats. We used generalized additive models to quantify the relationships between two major climatic gradients (Mediterranean and temperature gradient) and four key functional plant traits (plant height, specific leaf area, seed mass and specific root length) across > 300, 000 European vegetation plots, each one assigned to a hierarchy from broad to more narrowly defined habitats (based on the EUNIS classification). We found that the predictive power of climate increased from broader to more narrowly defined habitats for two out of the four traits (specific leaf area and root length). Although the two climatic gradients were significantly related to all four traits, these relationships varied with the width of the habitat definition and we found the highest degree of habitat-specific relationships in the most narrowly defined habitats. We conclude that climate and local environmental factors jointly drive the functional composition of plant communities. As the relationships between climate and plant traits are not generalizable, the effects of climate change might play out differently, depending on the habitat investigated. Thus, predictions of the effects of climate on plant communities must account for habitat-specificity and how habitats are defined.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Biologija

POVEZANOST RADA