Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe

Stephan Kambach; Francesco Maria Sabatini; Fabio Attorre; Idoia Biurrun; Gerhard Boenisch; Gianmaria Bonari; Andraž Čarni; Maria Laura Carranza; Alessandro Chiarucci; Milan Chytrý; Jürgen Dengler; Emmanuel Garbolino; Valentin Golub; Behlül Güler; Ute Jandt; Jan Jansen; Anni Jašková; Borja Jiménez-Alfaro; Dirk Nikolaus Karger; Jens Kattge; Ilona Knollová; Gabriele Midolo; Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund; Remigiusz Pielech; Valerijus Rašomavičius; Solvita Rūsiņa; Jozef Šibík; Zvjezdana Stančić; Angela Stanisci; Jens Christian Svenning; Sergey Yamalov; Niklaus E. Zimmermann; Helge Bruelheide

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36240-6

Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe

Stephan Kambach^*, Francesco Maria Sabatini, Fabio Attorre, Idoia Biurrun, Gerhard Boenisch, Gianmaria Bonari, Andraž Čarni, Maria Laura Carranza, Alessandro Chiarucci, Milan Chytrý, Jürgen Dengler, Emmanuel Garbolino, Valentin Golub, Behlül Güler, Ute Jandt, Jan Jansen, Anni Jašková, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Jens KattgeIlona Knollová, Gabriele Midolo, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Remigiusz Pielech, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Solvita Rūsiņa, Jozef Šibík, Zvjezdana Stančić, Angela Stanisci, Jens Christian Svenning, Sergey Yamalov, Niklaus E. Zimmermann, Helge Bruelheide

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Biology - Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ecological theory predicts close relationships between macroclimate and functional traits. Yet, global climatic gradients correlate only weakly with the trait composition of local plant communities, suggesting that important factors have been ignored. Here, we investigate the consistency of climate-trait relationships for plant communities in European habitats. Assuming that local factors are better accounted for in more narrowly defined habitats, we assigned > 300,000 vegetation plots to hierarchically classified habitats and modelled the effects of climate on the community-weighted means of four key functional traits using generalized additive models. We found that the predictive power of climate increased from broadly to narrowly defined habitats for specific leaf area and root length, but not for plant height and seed mass. Although macroclimate generally predicted the distribution of all traits, its effects varied, with habitat-specificity increasing toward more narrowly defined habitats. We conclude that macroclimate is an important determinant of terrestrial plant communities, but future predictions of climatic effects must consider how habitats are defined.

Original language	English
Article number	712
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	14
Issue	1
Number of pages	11
ISSN	2041-1723
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36240-6
Publication status	Published - 9 Feb 2023

Keywords

Ecosystem
Europe
Plants
Seeds

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10.1038/s41467-023-36240-6Licence: CC BY

Cite this

Kambach, S., Sabatini, F. M., Attorre, F., Biurrun, I., Boenisch, G., Bonari, G., Čarni, A., Carranza, M. L., Chiarucci, A., Chytrý, M., Dengler, J., Garbolino, E., Golub, V., Güler, B., Jandt, U., Jansen, J., Jašková, A., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Karger, D. N., ... Bruelheide, H. (2023). Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe. Nature Communications, 14(1), Article 712. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36240-6

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title = "Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe",

abstract = "Ecological theory predicts close relationships between macroclimate and functional traits. Yet, global climatic gradients correlate only weakly with the trait composition of local plant communities, suggesting that important factors have been ignored. Here, we investigate the consistency of climate-trait relationships for plant communities in European habitats. Assuming that local factors are better accounted for in more narrowly defined habitats, we assigned > 300,000 vegetation plots to hierarchically classified habitats and modelled the effects of climate on the community-weighted means of four key functional traits using generalized additive models. We found that the predictive power of climate increased from broadly to narrowly defined habitats for specific leaf area and root length, but not for plant height and seed mass. Although macroclimate generally predicted the distribution of all traits, its effects varied, with habitat-specificity increasing toward more narrowly defined habitats. We conclude that macroclimate is an important determinant of terrestrial plant communities, but future predictions of climatic effects must consider how habitats are defined.",

keywords = "Ecosystem, Europe, Plants, Seeds",

author = "Stephan Kambach and Sabatini, {Francesco Maria} and Fabio Attorre and Idoia Biurrun and Gerhard Boenisch and Gianmaria Bonari and Andra{\v z} {\v C}arni and Carranza, {Maria Laura} and Alessandro Chiarucci and Milan Chytr{\'y} and J{\"u}rgen Dengler and Emmanuel Garbolino and Valentin Golub and Behl{\"u}l G{\"u}ler and Ute Jandt and Jan Jansen and Anni Ja{\v s}kov{\'a} and Borja Jim{\'e}nez-Alfaro and Karger, {Dirk Nikolaus} and Jens Kattge and Ilona Knollov{\'a} and Gabriele Midolo and Moeslund, {Jesper Erenskjold} and Remigiusz Pielech and Valerijus Ra{\v s}omavi{\v c}ius and Solvita Rūsiņa and Jozef {\v S}ib{\'i}k and Zvjezdana Stan{\v c}i{\'c} and Angela Stanisci and Svenning, {Jens Christian} and Sergey Yamalov and Zimmermann, {Niklaus E.} and Helge Bruelheide",

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Kambach, S, Sabatini, FM, Attorre, F, Biurrun, I, Boenisch, G, Bonari, G, Čarni, A, Carranza, ML, Chiarucci, A, Chytrý, M, Dengler, J, Garbolino, E, Golub, V, Güler, B, Jandt, U, Jansen, J, Jašková, A, Jiménez-Alfaro, B, Karger, DN, Kattge, J, Knollová, I, Midolo, G, Moeslund, JE, Pielech, R, Rašomavičius, V, Rūsiņa, S, Šibík, J, Stančić, Z, Stanisci, A, Svenning, JC, Yamalov, S, Zimmermann, NE & Bruelheide, H 2023, 'Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe', Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 712. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36240-6

Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe. / Kambach, Stephan; Sabatini, Francesco Maria; Attorre, Fabio et al.
In: Nature Communications, Vol. 14, No. 1, 712, 09.02.2023.

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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AU - Kambach, Stephan

AU - Sabatini, Francesco Maria

AU - Attorre, Fabio

AU - Biurrun, Idoia

AU - Boenisch, Gerhard

AU - Bonari, Gianmaria

AU - Čarni, Andraž

AU - Carranza, Maria Laura

AU - Chiarucci, Alessandro

AU - Chytrý, Milan

AU - Dengler, Jürgen

AU - Garbolino, Emmanuel

AU - Golub, Valentin

AU - Güler, Behlül

AU - Jandt, Ute

AU - Jansen, Jan

AU - Jašková, Anni

AU - Jiménez-Alfaro, Borja

AU - Karger, Dirk Nikolaus

AU - Kattge, Jens

AU - Knollová, Ilona

AU - Midolo, Gabriele

AU - Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold

AU - Pielech, Remigiusz

AU - Rašomavičius, Valerijus

AU - Rūsiņa, Solvita

AU - Šibík, Jozef

AU - Stančić, Zvjezdana

AU - Stanisci, Angela

AU - Svenning, Jens Christian

AU - Yamalov, Sergey

AU - Zimmermann, Niklaus E.

AU - Bruelheide, Helge

PY - 2023/2/9

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N2 - Ecological theory predicts close relationships between macroclimate and functional traits. Yet, global climatic gradients correlate only weakly with the trait composition of local plant communities, suggesting that important factors have been ignored. Here, we investigate the consistency of climate-trait relationships for plant communities in European habitats. Assuming that local factors are better accounted for in more narrowly defined habitats, we assigned > 300,000 vegetation plots to hierarchically classified habitats and modelled the effects of climate on the community-weighted means of four key functional traits using generalized additive models. We found that the predictive power of climate increased from broadly to narrowly defined habitats for specific leaf area and root length, but not for plant height and seed mass. Although macroclimate generally predicted the distribution of all traits, its effects varied, with habitat-specificity increasing toward more narrowly defined habitats. We conclude that macroclimate is an important determinant of terrestrial plant communities, but future predictions of climatic effects must consider how habitats are defined.

AB - Ecological theory predicts close relationships between macroclimate and functional traits. Yet, global climatic gradients correlate only weakly with the trait composition of local plant communities, suggesting that important factors have been ignored. Here, we investigate the consistency of climate-trait relationships for plant communities in European habitats. Assuming that local factors are better accounted for in more narrowly defined habitats, we assigned > 300,000 vegetation plots to hierarchically classified habitats and modelled the effects of climate on the community-weighted means of four key functional traits using generalized additive models. We found that the predictive power of climate increased from broadly to narrowly defined habitats for specific leaf area and root length, but not for plant height and seed mass. Although macroclimate generally predicted the distribution of all traits, its effects varied, with habitat-specificity increasing toward more narrowly defined habitats. We conclude that macroclimate is an important determinant of terrestrial plant communities, but future predictions of climatic effects must consider how habitats are defined.

KW - Ecosystem

KW - Europe

KW - Plants

KW - Seeds

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DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-36240-6

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ER -

Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe

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Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe

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