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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. Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe. Nat Commun 2023; 14:712. [PMID: 36759605 PMCID: PMC9911725 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36240-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023] Open
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephan Kambach
- Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany. .,German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Francesco Maria Sabatini
- Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany.,German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,BIOME Lab, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BiGeA), Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague - Suchdol, Czech Republic
| | - Fabio Attorre
- Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Roma, Italy
| | - Idoia Biurrun
- Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Bilbao, Spain
| | | | - Gianmaria Bonari
- Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
| | - Andraž Čarni
- Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology, ZRC-SAZU, Ljubljana, Slovenia.,University of Nova Gorica, School for Viticulture and Enology, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
| | - Maria Laura Carranza
- Envixlab, Department of Biosciences and Territory, University of Molise, Pesche, Italy
| | - Alessandro Chiarucci
- BIOME Lab, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BiGeA), Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Milan Chytrý
- Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jürgen Dengler
- Vegetation Ecology Research Group, Institute of Natural Resource Sciences (IUNR), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Wädenswil, Switzerland.,Plant Ecology, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Emmanuel Garbolino
- Climpact Data Science (CDS), Nova Sophia - Regus Nova, Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France
| | - Valentin Golub
- Samara Federal Research Scientific Center, Institute of Ecology of the Volga River Basin, Russian Academy of Sciences, Togliatti, Russia
| | - Behlül Güler
- Biology Education, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Ute Jandt
- Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany.,German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Jan Jansen
- Department of Ecology and Physiology, Faculty of Science, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Anni Jašková
- Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Borja Jiménez-Alfaro
- IMIB Biodiversity Research Institute (Univ.Oviedo-CSIC-Princ. Asturias), University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain
| | | | - Jens Kattge
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
| | - Ilona Knollová
- Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Gabriele Midolo
- Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | | | - Remigiusz Pielech
- Department of Forest Biodiversity, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Kraków, Poland
| | | | - Solvita Rūsiņa
- Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
| | - Jozef Šibík
- Institute of Botany, Plant Science and Biodiversity Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Zvjezdana Stančić
- Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Angela Stanisci
- Envixlab, Department of Biosciences and Territory, University of Molise, Pesche, Italy
| | - Jens-Christian Svenning
- Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Sergey Yamalov
- Botanical Garden-Institute, Ufa Scientific Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ufa, Russia
| | | | - Helge Bruelheide
- Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany.,German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
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