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Olivier Flores

Bio: Olivier Flores is an academic researcher from University of La Réunion. The author has contributed to research in topics: Biological dispersal & Population. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 44 publications receiving 3202 citations. Previous affiliations of Olivier Flores include Centre national de la recherche scientifique & University of Montpellier.

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Journal ArticleDOI
Jens Kattge1, Sandra Díaz2, Sandra Lavorel3, Iain Colin Prentice4, Paul Leadley5, Gerhard Bönisch1, Eric Garnier3, Mark Westoby4, Peter B. Reich6, Peter B. Reich7, Ian J. Wright4, Johannes H. C. Cornelissen8, Cyrille Violle3, Sandy P. Harrison4, P.M. van Bodegom8, Markus Reichstein1, Brian J. Enquist9, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia8, David D. Ackerly10, Madhur Anand11, Owen K. Atkin12, Michael Bahn13, Timothy R. Baker14, Dennis D. Baldocchi10, Renée M. Bekker15, Carolina C. Blanco16, Benjamin Blonder9, William J. Bond17, Ross A. Bradstock18, Daniel E. Bunker19, Fernando Casanoves20, Jeannine Cavender-Bares6, Jeffrey Q. Chambers21, F. S. Chapin22, Jérôme Chave3, David A. Coomes23, William K. Cornwell8, Joseph M. Craine24, B. H. Dobrin9, Leandro da Silva Duarte16, Walter Durka25, James J. Elser26, Gerd Esser27, Marc Estiarte28, William F. Fagan29, Jingyun Fang, Fernando Fernández-Méndez30, Alessandra Fidelis31, Bryan Finegan20, Olivier Flores32, H. Ford33, Dorothea Frank1, Grégoire T. Freschet34, Nikolaos M. Fyllas14, Rachael V. Gallagher4, Walton A. Green35, Alvaro G. Gutiérrez25, Thomas Hickler, Steven I. Higgins36, John G. Hodgson37, Adel Jalili, Steven Jansen38, Carlos Alfredo Joly39, Andrew J. Kerkhoff40, Don Kirkup41, Kaoru Kitajima42, Michael Kleyer43, Stefan Klotz25, Johannes M. H. Knops44, Koen Kramer, Ingolf Kühn16, Hiroko Kurokawa45, Daniel C. Laughlin46, Tali D. Lee47, Michelle R. Leishman4, Frederic Lens48, Tanja Lenz4, Simon L. Lewis14, Jon Lloyd49, Jon Lloyd14, Joan Llusià28, Frédérique Louault50, Siyan Ma10, Miguel D. Mahecha1, Peter Manning51, Tara Joy Massad1, Belinda E. Medlyn4, Julie Messier9, Angela T. Moles52, Sandra Cristina Müller16, Karin Nadrowski53, Shahid Naeem54, Ülo Niinemets55, S. Nöllert1, A. Nüske1, Romà Ogaya28, Jacek Oleksyn56, Vladimir G. Onipchenko57, Yusuke Onoda58, Jenny C. Ordoñez59, Gerhard E. Overbeck16, Wim A. Ozinga59, Sandra Patiño14, Susana Paula60, Juli G. Pausas60, Josep Peñuelas28, Oliver L. Phillips14, Valério D. Pillar16, Hendrik Poorter, Lourens Poorter59, Peter Poschlod61, Andreas Prinzing62, Raphaël Proulx63, Anja Rammig64, Sabine Reinsch65, Björn Reu1, Lawren Sack66, Beatriz Salgado-Negret20, Jordi Sardans28, Satomi Shiodera67, Bill Shipley68, Andrew Siefert69, Enio E. Sosinski70, Jean-François Soussana50, Emily Swaine71, Nathan G. Swenson72, Ken Thompson37, Peter E. Thornton73, Matthew S. Waldram74, Evan Weiher47, Michael T. White75, S. White11, S. J. Wright76, Benjamin Yguel3, Sönke Zaehle1, Amy E. Zanne77, Christian Wirth58 
Max Planck Society1, National University of Cordoba2, Centre national de la recherche scientifique3, Macquarie University4, University of Paris-Sud5, University of Minnesota6, University of Western Sydney7, VU University Amsterdam8, University of Arizona9, University of California, Berkeley10, University of Guelph11, Australian National University12, University of Innsbruck13, University of Leeds14, University of Groningen15, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul16, University of Cape Town17, University of Wollongong18, New Jersey Institute of Technology19, Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza20, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory21, University of Alaska Fairbanks22, University of Cambridge23, Kansas State University24, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ25, Arizona State University26, University of Giessen27, Autonomous University of Barcelona28, University of Maryland, College Park29, Universidad del Tolima30, University of São Paulo31, University of La Réunion32, University of York33, University of Sydney34, Harvard University35, Goethe University Frankfurt36, University of Sheffield37, University of Ulm38, State University of Campinas39, Kenyon College40, Royal Botanic Gardens41, University of Florida42, University of Oldenburg43, University of Nebraska–Lincoln44, Tohoku University45, Northern Arizona University46, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire47, Naturalis48, James Cook University49, Institut national de la recherche agronomique50, Newcastle University51, University of New South Wales52, Leipzig University53, Columbia University54, Estonian University of Life Sciences55, Polish Academy of Sciences56, Moscow State University57, Kyushu University58, Wageningen University and Research Centre59, Spanish National Research Council60, University of Regensburg61, University of Rennes62, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières63, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research64, Technical University of Denmark65, University of California, Los Angeles66, Hokkaido University67, Université de Sherbrooke68, Syracuse University69, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária70, University of Aberdeen71, Michigan State University72, Oak Ridge National Laboratory73, University of Leicester74, Utah State University75, Smithsonian Institution76, University of Missouri77
01 Sep 2011
TL;DR: TRY as discussed by the authors is a global database of plant traits, including morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants and their organs, which can be used for a wide range of research from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology to biogeography.
Abstract: Plant traits – the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants and their organs – determine how primary producers respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, influence ecosystem processes and services and provide a link from species richness to ecosystem functional diversity. Trait data thus represent the raw material for a wide range of research from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology to biogeography. Here we present the global database initiative named TRY, which has united a wide range of the plant trait research community worldwide and gained an unprecedented buy-in of trait data: so far 93 trait databases have been contributed. The data repository currently contains almost three million trait entries for 69 000 out of the world's 300 000 plant species, with a focus on 52 groups of traits characterizing the vegetative and regeneration stages of the plant life cycle, including growth, dispersal, establishment and persistence. A first data analysis shows that most plant traits are approximately log-normally distributed, with widely differing ranges of variation across traits. Most trait variation is between species (interspecific), but significant intraspecific variation is also documented, up to 40% of the overall variation. Plant functional types (PFTs), as commonly used in vegetation models, capture a substantial fraction of the observed variation – but for several traits most variation occurs within PFTs, up to 75% of the overall variation. In the context of vegetation models these traits would better be represented by state variables rather than fixed parameter values. The improved availability of plant trait data in the unified global database is expected to support a paradigm shift from species to trait-based ecology, offer new opportunities for synthetic plant trait research and enable a more realistic and empirically grounded representation of terrestrial vegetation in Earth system models.

2,017 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
06 Mar 2014-Nature
TL;DR: A global analysis of 403 tropical and temperate tree species shows that for most species mass growth rate increases continuously with tree size, which means large, old trees do not act simply as senescent carbon reservoirs but actively fix large amounts of carbon compared to smaller trees.
Abstract: Forests are major components of the global carbon cycle, providing substantial feedback to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Our ability to understand and predict changes in the forest carbon cycle--particularly net primary productivity and carbon storage--increasingly relies on models that represent biological processes across several scales of biological organization, from tree leaves to forest stands. Yet, despite advances in our understanding of productivity at the scales of leaves and stands, no consensus exists about the nature of productivity at the scale of the individual tree, in part because we lack a broad empirical assessment of whether rates of absolute tree mass growth (and thus carbon accumulation) decrease, remain constant, or increase as trees increase in size and age. Here we present a global analysis of 403 tropical and temperate tree species, showing that for most species mass growth rate increases continuously with tree size. Thus, large, old trees do not act simply as senescent carbon reservoirs but actively fix large amounts of carbon compared to smaller trees; at the extreme, a single big tree can add the same amount of carbon to the forest within a year as is contained in an entire mid-sized tree. The apparent paradoxes of individual tree growth increasing with tree size despite declining leaf-level and stand-level productivity can be explained, respectively, by increases in a tree's total leaf area that outpace declines in productivity per unit of leaf area and, among other factors, age-related reductions in population density. Our results resolve conflicting assumptions about the nature of tree growth, inform efforts to undertand and model forest carbon dynamics, and have additional implications for theories of resource allocation and plant senescence.

692 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
19 Mar 2015-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: Leaf functional traits, especially LA and LDMC, allowed to differentiate some cover crops strategies related to their ability to grow and acquire N, suggesting an efficient acquisitive syndrome in the former, corresponding to the high resource availability found in agrosystems.
Abstract: Cover crops can produce ecosystem services during the fallow period, as reducing nitrate leaching and producing green manure. Crop growth rate (CGR) and crop nitrogen acquisition rate (CNR) can be used as two indicators of the ability of cover crops to produce these services in agrosystems. We used leaf functional traits to characterise the growth strategies of 36 cover crops as an approach to assess their ability to grow and acquire N rapidly. We measured specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf nitrogen content (LNC) and leaf area (LA) and we evaluated their relevance to characterise CGR and CNR. Cover crop species were positioned along the Leaf Economics Spectrum (LES), the SLA-LDMC plane, and the CSR triangle of plant strategies. LA was positively correlated with CGR and CNR, while LDMC was negatively correlated with CNR. All cover crops could be classified as resource-acquisitive species from their relative position on the LES and the SLA-LDMC plane. Most cover crops were located along the Competition/Ruderality axis in the CSR triangle. In particular, Brassicaceae species were classified as very competitive, which was consistent with their high CGR and CNR. Leaf functional traits, especially LA and LDMC, allowed to differentiate some cover crops strategies related to their ability to grow and acquire N. LDMC was lower and LNC was higher in cover crop than in wild species, pointing to an efficient acquisitive syndrome in the former, corresponding to the high resource availability found in agrosystems. Combining several leaf traits explained approximately half of the CGR and CNR variances, which might be considered insufficient to precisely characterise and rank cover crop species for agronomic purposes. We hypothesised that may be the consequence of domestication process, which has reduced the range of plant strategies and modified the leaf trait syndrome in cultivated species.

97 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between above-ground biomass and soil type in undisturbed moist forests in the Central African Republic was investigated, and the effects of soil texture, as a surrogate for soil resources availability and physical constraints (soil depth and hydromorphy) on biomass was tested.
Abstract: Summary 1. Regional above-ground biomass estimates for tropical moist forests remain highly inaccurate mostly because they are based on extrapolations from a few plots scattered across a limited range of soils and other environmental conditions. When such conditions impact biomass, the estimation is biased. The effect of soil types on biomass has especially yielded controversial results. 2. We investigated the relationship between above-ground biomass and soil type in undisturbed moist forests in the Central African Republic. We tested the effects of soil texture, as a surrogate for soil resources availability and physical constraints (soil depth and hydromorphy) on biomass. Forest inventory data were collected for trees ‡20 cm stem diameter in 2754 0.5 ha plots scattered over 4888 km 2 . The plots contained 224 taxons, of which 209 were identified to species. Soil types were characterized from a 1:1 000 000 scale soil map. Species-specific values for wood density were extracted from the CIRAD’s data base of wood technological properties. 3. We found that basal area and biomass differ in their responses to soil type, ranging from 17.8 m 2 ha )1 (217.5 t ha )1 )t o 22.3 m 2 ha )1 (273.3 t ha )1 ). While shallow and hydromorphic soils support forests with both low stem basal area and low biomass, forests on deep resource-poor soils are typically low in basal area but as high in biomass as forests on deep resource-rich soils. We demonstrated that the environmental filtering of slow growing dense-wooded species on resource-poor soils compensates for the low basal area, and we discuss whether this filtering effect is due to low fertility or to low water reserve. 4. Synthesis. We showed that soil physical conditions constrained the amount of biomass stored in tropical moist forests. Contrary to previous reports, our results suggest that biomass is similar on resource-poor and resource-rich soils. This finding highlights both the importance of taking into account soil characteristics and species wood density when trying to predict regional patterns of biomass. Our findings have implications for the evaluation of biomass stocks in tropical forests, in the context of the international negotiations on climate change.

87 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that if the composition and structure of New Zealand's forests were to remain unchanged over the next 30 years, then AWP would increase by 6-23%, primarily as a result of physiological responses to warmer temperatures (with no appreciable effect of changing rainfall).
Abstract: Established forests currently function as a major carbon sink, sequestering as woody biomass about 26% of global fossil fuel emissions. Whether forests continue to act as a global sink will depend on many factors, including the response of aboveground wood production (AWP; MgC ha−1 yr−1) to climate change. Here, we explore how AWP in New Zealand's natural forests is likely to change. We start by statistically modelling the present-day growth of 97 199 individual trees within 1070 permanently marked inventory plots as a function of tree size, competitive neighbourhood and climate. We then use these growth models to identify the factors that most influence present-day AWP and to predict responses to medium-term climate change under different assumptions. We find that if the composition and structure of New Zealand's forests were to remain unchanged over the next 30 years, then AWP would increase by 6–23%, primarily as a result of physiological responses to warmer temperatures (with no appreciable effect of changing rainfall). However, if warmth-requiring trees were able to migrate into currently cooler areas and if denser canopies were able to form, then a different AWP response is likely: forests growing in the cool mountain environments would show a 30% increase in AWP, while those in the lowland would hardly respond (on average, −3% when mean annual temperature exceeds 8.0 °C). We conclude that response of wood production to anthropogenic climate change is not only dependent on the physiological responses of individual trees, but is highly contingent on whether forests adjust in composition and structure.

87 citations


Cited by
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07 Jun 2012-Nature
TL;DR: It is argued that human actions are dismantling the Earth’s ecosystems, eliminating genes, species and biological traits at an alarming rate, and the question of how such loss of biological diversity will alter the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services needed to prosper is asked.
Abstract: The most unique feature of Earth is the existence of life, and the most extraordinary feature of life is its diversity. Approximately 9 million types of plants, animals, protists and fungi inhabit the Earth. So, too, do 7 billion people. Two decades ago, at the first Earth Summit, the vast majority of the world's nations declared that human actions were dismantling the Earth's ecosystems, eliminating genes, species and biological traits at an alarming rate. This observation led to the question of how such loss of biological diversity will alter the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services needed to prosper.

5,244 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This new handbook has a better balance between whole-plant traits, leaf traits, root and stem traits and regenerative traits, and puts particular emphasis on traits important for predicting species’ effects on key ecosystem properties.
Abstract: Plant functional traits are the features (morphological, physiological, phenological) that represent ecological strategies and determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels and influence ecosystem properties. Variation in plant functional traits, and trait syndromes, has proven useful for tackling many important ecological questions at a range of scales, giving rise to a demand for standardised ways to measure ecologically meaningful plant traits. This line of research has been among the most fruitful avenues for understanding ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes. It also has the potential both to build a predictive set of local, regional and global relationships between plants and environment and to quantify a wide range of natural and human-driven processes, including changes in biodiversity, the impacts of species invasions, alterations in biogeochemical processes and vegetation–atmosphere interactions. The importance of these topics dictates the urgent need for more and better data, and increases the value of standardised protocols for quantifying trait variation of different species, in particular for traits with power to predict plant- and ecosystem-level processes, and for traits that can be measured relatively easily. Updated and expanded from the widely used previous version, this handbook retains the focus on clearly presented, widely applicable, step-by-step recipes, with a minimum of text on theory, and not only includes updated methods for the traits previously covered, but also introduces many new protocols for further traits. This new handbook has a better balance between whole-plant traits, leaf traits, root and stem traits and regenerative traits, and puts particular emphasis on traits important for predicting species’ effects on key ecosystem properties. We hope this new handbook becomes a standard companion in local and global efforts to learn about the responses and impacts of different plant species with respect to environmental changes in the present, past and future.

2,744 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
02 Apr 2015-Nature
TL;DR: A terrestrial assemblage database of unprecedented geographic and taxonomic coverage is analysed to quantify local biodiversity responses to land use and related changes and shows that in the worst-affected habitats, pressures reduce within-sample species richness by an average of 76.5%, total abundance by 39.5% and rarefaction-based richness by 40.3%.
Abstract: Human activities, especially conversion and degradation of habitats, are causing global biodiversity declines. How local ecological assemblages are responding is less clear--a concern given their importance for many ecosystem functions and services. We analysed a terrestrial assemblage database of unprecedented geographic and taxonomic coverage to quantify local biodiversity responses to land use and related changes. Here we show that in the worst-affected habitats, these pressures reduce within-sample species richness by an average of 76.5%, total abundance by 39.5% and rarefaction-based richness by 40.3%. We estimate that, globally, these pressures have already slightly reduced average within-sample richness (by 13.6%), total abundance (10.7%) and rarefaction-based richness (8.1%), with changes showing marked spatial variation. Rapid further losses are predicted under a business-as-usual land-use scenario; within-sample richness is projected to fall by a further 3.4% globally by 2100, with losses concentrated in biodiverse but economically poor countries. Strong mitigation can deliver much more positive biodiversity changes (up to a 1.9% average increase) that are less strongly related to countries' socioeconomic status.

2,532 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A single ‘fast–slow’ plant economics spectrum that integrates across leaves, stems and roots is a key feature of the plant universe and helps to explain individual ecological strategies, community assembly processes and the functioning of ecosystems.
Abstract: Summary 1. The leaf economics spectrum (LES) provides a useful framework for examining species strategies as shaped by their evolutionary history. However, that spectrum, as originally described, involved only two key resources (carbon and nutrients) and one of three economically important plant organs. Herein, I evaluate whether the economics spectrum idea can be broadly extended to water – the third key resource –stems, roots and entire plants and to individual, community and ecosystem scales. My overarching hypothesis is that strong selection along trait trade-off axes, in tandem with biophysical constraints, results in convergence for any taxon on a uniformly fast, medium or slow strategy (i.e. rates of resource acquisition and processing) for all organs and all resources. 2. Evidence for economic trait spectra exists for stems and roots as well as leaves, and for traits related to water as well as carbon and nutrients. These apply generally within and across scales (within and across communities, climate zones, biomes and lineages). 3. There are linkages across organs and coupling among resources, resulting in an integrated whole-plant economics spectrum. Species capable of moving water rapidly have low tissue density, short tissue life span and high rates of resource acquisition and flux at organ and individual scales. The reverse is true for species with the slow strategy. Different traits may be important in different conditions, but as being fast in one respect generally requires being fast in others, being fast or slow is a general feature of species. 4. Economic traits influence performance and fitness consistent with trait-based theory about underlying adaptive mechanisms. Traits help explain differences in growth and survival across resource gradients and thus help explain the distribution of species and the assembly of communities across light, water and nutrient gradients. Traits scale up – fast traits are associated with faster rates of ecosystem processes such as decomposition or primary productivity, and slow traits with slow process rates. 5. Synthesis. Traits matter. A single ‘fast–slow’ plant economics spectrum that integrates across leaves, stems and roots is a key feature of the plant universe and helps to explain individual ecological strategies, community assembly processes and the functioning of ecosystems.

2,246 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
14 Jan 2016-Nature
TL;DR: Analysis of worldwide variation in six major traits critical to growth, survival and reproduction within the largest sample of vascular plant species ever compiled found that occupancy of six-dimensional trait space is strongly concentrated, indicating coordination and trade-offs.
Abstract: The authors found that the key elements of plant form and function, analysed at global scale, are largely concentrated into a two-dimensional plane indexed by the size of whole plants and organs on the one hand, and the construction costs for photosynthetic leaf area, on the other.

1,814 citations