Functional trait trade-offs define plant population stability across different biomes

Conti, Luisa; Valencia, Enrique; Galland, Thomas; Götzenberger, Lars; Lepš, Jan; E-Vojtkó, Anna; Carmona, Carlos P.; Májeková, Maria; Danihelka, Jiří; Dengler, Jürgen; Eldridge, David J.; Estiarte, Marc; García-González, Ricardo; Garnier, Eric; Gómez, Daniel; Hadincová, Věra; Harrison, Susan P.; Herben, Tomáš; Ibáñez, Ricardo; Jentsch, Anke; Juergens, Norbert; Kertész, Miklós; Klumpp, Katja; Krahulec, František; Louault, Frédérique; Marrs, Rob H.; Ónodi, Gábor; Pakeman, Robin J.; Pärtel, Meelis; Peco, Begoña; Peñuelas, Josep; Rueda, Marta; Schmidt, Wolfgang; Schmiedel, Ute; Schuetz, Martin; Skalova, Hana; Šmilauer, Petr; Šmilauerová, Marie; Smit, Christian; Song, MingHua; Stock, Martin; Val, James; Vandvik, Vigdis; Ward, David; Wesche, Karsten; Wiser, Susan K.; Woodcock, Ben A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0300-9951; Young, Truman P.; Yu, Fei-Hai; Zobel, Martin; de Bello, Francesco. 2023 Functional trait trade-offs define plant population stability across different biomes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 290 (2001), 20230344. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0344

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0344

Abstract/Summary

Ecological theory posits that temporal stability patterns in plant populations are associated with differences in species' ecological strategies. However, empirical evidence is lacking about which traits, or trade-offs, underlie species stability, especially across different biomes. We compiled a worldwide collection of long-term permanent vegetation records (greater than 7000 plots from 78 datasets) from a large range of habitats which we combined with existing trait databases. We tested whether the observed inter-annual variability in species abundance (coefficient of variation) was related to multiple individual traits. We found that populations with greater leaf dry matter content and seed mass were more stable over time. Despite the variability explained by these traits being low, their effect was consistent across different datasets. Other traits played a significant, albeit weaker, role in species stability, and the inclusion of multi-variate axes or phylogeny did not substantially modify nor improve predictions. These results provide empirical evidence and highlight the relevance of specific ecological trade-offs, i.e. in different resource-use and dispersal strategies, for plant populations stability across multiple biomes. Further research is, however, necessary to integrate and evaluate the role of other specific traits, often not available in databases, and intraspecific trait variability in modulating species stability.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0344
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Biodiversity (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	0962-8452
Additional Keywords:	acquisitive, conservative, dispersal, long-term studies, temporal patterns, variability
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment Botany
Related URLs:	Dataset Dataset
Date made live:	09 Nov 2023 09:05 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/535722

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0344

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Biodiversity (Science Area 2017-)

ISSN:

0962-8452

Additional Keywords:

acquisitive, conservative, dispersal, long-term studies, temporal patterns, variability

NORA Subject Terms:

Ecology and Environment
Botany