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Journal ArticleDOI

Latitudinal gradients as natural laboratories to infer species' responses to temperature

TL;DR: The synthesis indicates that many life-history traits of plants vary with latitude but the translation of latitudinal clines into responses to temperature is a crucial step, and integrated approaches of observational studies along temperature gradients, experimental methods and common garden experiments increasingly emerge as the way forward to further the authors' understanding of species and community responses to climate warming.
Abstract: Macroclimatic variation along latitudinal gradients provides an excellent natural laboratory to investigate the role of temperature and the potential impacts of climate warming on terrestrial organisms. Here, we review the use of latitudinal gradients for ecological climate change research, in comparison with altitudinal gradients and experimental warming, and illustrate their use and caveats with a meta-analysis of latitudinal intraspecific variation in important life-history traits of vascular plants. We first provide an overview of latitudinal patterns in temperature and other abiotic and biotic environmental variables in terrestrial ecosystems. We then assess the latitudinal intraspecific variation present in five key life-history traits [plant height, specific leaf area (SLA), foliar nitrogen:phosphorus (N:P) stoichiometry, seed mass and root:shoot (R:S) ratio] in natural populations or common garden experiments across a total of 98 plant species. Intraspecific leaf N:P ratio and seed mass significantly decreased with latitude in natural populations. Conversely, the plant height decreased and SLA increased significantly with latitude of population origin in common garden experiments. However, less than a third of the investigated latitudinal transect studies also formally disentangled the effects of temperature from other environmental drivers which potentially hampers the translation from latitudinal effects into a temperature signal. Synthesis. Latitudinal gradients provide a methodological set-up to overcome the drawbacks of other observational and experimental warming methods. Our synthesis indicates that many life-history traits of plants vary with latitude but the translation of latitudinal clines into responses to temperature is a crucial step. Therefore, especially adaptive differentiation of populations and confounding environmental factors other than temperature need to be considered. More generally, integrated approaches of observational studies along temperature gradients, experimental methods and common garden experiments increasingly emerge as the way forward to further our understanding of species and community responses to climate warming.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown how functional biogeography bridges species-basedBiogeography and earth science to provide ideas and tools to help explain gradients in multifaceted diversity (including species, functional, and phylogenetic diversities), predict ecosystem functioning and services worldwide, and infuse regional and global conservation programs with a functional basis.
Abstract: Understanding, modeling, and predicting the impact of global change on ecosystem functioning across biogeographical gradients can benefit from enhanced capacity to represent biota as a continuous distribution of traits. However, this is a challenge for the field of biogeography historically grounded on the species concept. Here we focus on the newly emergent field of functional biogeography: the study of the geographic distribution of trait diversity across organizational levels. We show how functional biogeography bridges species-based biogeography and earth science to provide ideas and tools to help explain gradients in multifaceted diversity (including species, functional, and phylogenetic diversities), predict ecosystem functioning and services worldwide, and infuse regional and global conservation programs with a functional basis. Although much recent progress has been made possible because of the rising of multiple data streams, new developments in ecoinformatics, and new methodological advances, future directions should provide a theoretical and comprehensive framework for the scaling of biotic interactions across trophic levels and its ecological implications.

517 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Anne D. Bjorkman1, Anne D. Bjorkman2, Isla H. Myers-Smith1, Sarah C. Elmendorf3, Sarah C. Elmendorf4, Sarah C. Elmendorf5, Signe Normand2, Nadja Rüger6, Pieter S. A. Beck, Anne Blach-Overgaard2, Daan Blok7, J. Hans C. Cornelissen8, Bruce C. Forbes9, Damien Georges1, Scott J. Goetz10, Kevin C. Guay11, Gregory H. R. Henry12, Janneke HilleRisLambers13, Robert D. Hollister14, Dirk Nikolaus Karger15, Jens Kattge16, Peter Manning, Janet S. Prevéy, Christian Rixen, Gabriela Schaepman-Strub17, Haydn J.D. Thomas1, Mark Vellend18, Martin Wilmking19, Sonja Wipf, Michele Carbognani20, Luise Hermanutz21, Esther Lévesque22, Ulf Molau23, Alessandro Petraglia20, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia24, Marko J. Spasojevic25, Marcello Tomaselli20, Tage Vowles23, Juha M. Alatalo26, Heather D. Alexander27, Alba Anadon-Rosell28, Alba Anadon-Rosell19, Sandra Angers-Blondin1, Mariska te Beest29, Mariska te Beest30, Logan T. Berner10, Robert G. Björk23, Agata Buchwal31, Agata Buchwal32, Allan Buras33, Katherine S. Christie34, Elisabeth J. Cooper35, Stefan Dullinger36, Bo Elberling37, Anu Eskelinen38, Anu Eskelinen39, Esther R. Frei12, Esther R. Frei15, Oriol Grau40, Paul Grogan41, Martin Hallinger, Karen A. Harper42, Monique M. P. D. Heijmans33, James I. Hudson, Karl Hülber36, Maitane Iturrate-Garcia17, Colleen M. Iversen43, Francesca Jaroszynska44, Jill F. Johnstone45, Rasmus Halfdan Jørgensen37, Elina Kaarlejärvi46, Elina Kaarlejärvi30, Rebecca A Klady12, Sara Kuleza45, Aino Kulonen, Laurent J. Lamarque22, Trevor C. Lantz47, Chelsea J. Little48, Chelsea J. Little17, James D. M. Speed49, Anders Michelsen37, Ann Milbau50, Jacob Nabe-Nielsen2, Sigrid Schøler Nielsen2, Josep M. Ninot28, Steven F. Oberbauer51, Johan Olofsson30, Vladimir G. Onipchenko52, Sabine B. Rumpf36, Philipp R. Semenchuk36, Philipp R. Semenchuk35, Rohan Shetti19, Laura Siegwart Collier21, Lorna E. Street1, Katharine N. Suding5, Ken D. Tape53, Andrew J. Trant54, Andrew J. Trant21, Urs A. Treier2, Jean-Pierre Tremblay55, Maxime Tremblay22, Susanna Venn56, Stef Weijers57, Tara Zamin41, Noémie Boulanger-Lapointe12, William A. Gould58, David S. Hik59, Annika Hofgaard, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir60, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir61, Janet C. Jorgenson62, Julia A. Klein63, Borgthor Magnusson, Craig E. Tweedie64, Philip A. Wookey65, Michael Bahn66, Benjamin Blonder67, Benjamin Blonder68, Peter M. van Bodegom24, Benjamin Bond-Lamberty69, Giandiego Campetella70, Bruno Enrico Leone Cerabolini71, F. Stuart Chapin53, William K. Cornwell72, Joseph M. Craine, Matteo Dainese, Franciska T. de Vries73, Sandra Díaz74, Brian J. Enquist75, Brian J. Enquist76, Walton A. Green77, Rubén Milla78, Ülo Niinemets79, Yusuke Onoda80, Jenny C. Ordoñez81, Wim A. Ozinga33, Wim A. Ozinga82, Josep Peñuelas40, Hendrik Poorter83, Hendrik Poorter84, Peter Poschlod85, Peter B. Reich86, Peter B. Reich87, Brody Sandel88, Brandon S. Schamp89, Serge N. Sheremetev90, Evan Weiher91 
University of Edinburgh1, Aarhus University2, National Ecological Observatory Network3, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research4, University of Colorado Boulder5, Smithsonian Institution6, Lund University7, VU University Amsterdam8, University of Lapland9, Northern Arizona University10, Bigelow Laboratory For Ocean Sciences11, University of British Columbia12, University of Washington13, Grand Valley State University14, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research15, Max Planck Society16, University of Zurich17, Université de Sherbrooke18, University of Greifswald19, University of Parma20, Memorial University of Newfoundland21, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières22, University of Gothenburg23, Leiden University24, University of California, Riverside25, Qatar University26, Mississippi State University27, University of Barcelona28, Utrecht University29, Umeå University30, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań31, University of Alaska Anchorage32, Wageningen University and Research Centre33, Alaska Department of Fish and Game34, University of Tromsø35, University of Vienna36, University of Copenhagen37, University of Oulu38, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ39, Spanish National Research Council40, Queen's University41, Saint Mary's University42, Oak Ridge National Laboratory43, University of Aberdeen44, University of Saskatchewan45, Vrije Universiteit Brussel46, University of Victoria47, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology48, Norwegian University of Science and Technology49, Research Institute for Nature and Forest50, Florida International University51, Moscow State University52, University of Alaska Fairbanks53, University of Waterloo54, Laval University55, Deakin University56, University of Bonn57, United States Forest Service58, Simon Fraser University59, University Centre in Svalbard60, University of Iceland61, United States Fish and Wildlife Service62, Colorado State University63, University of Texas at El Paso64, University of Stirling65, University of Innsbruck66, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory67, University of Oxford68, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory69, University of Camerino70, University of Insubria71, University of New South Wales72, University of Manchester73, National University of Cordoba74, Santa Fe Institute75, University of Arizona76, Harvard University77, King Juan Carlos University78, Estonian University of Life Sciences79, Kyoto University80, World Agroforestry Centre81, Radboud University Nijmegen82, Macquarie University83, Forschungszentrum Jülich84, University of Regensburg85, University of Minnesota86, University of Sydney87, Santa Clara University88, Algoma University89, Komarov Botanical Institute90, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire91
04 Oct 2018-Nature
TL;DR: Biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits across the tundra and over time show that community height increased with warming across all sites, whereas other traits lagged behind predicted rates of change.
Abstract: The tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature-trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially important influence of changes in water availability on future trait shifts in tundra plant communities. Community height increased with warming across all sites over the past three decades, but other traits lagged far behind predicted rates of change. Our findings highlight the challenge of using space-for-time substitution to predict the functional consequences of future warming and suggest that functions that are tied closely to plant height will experience the most rapid change. They also reveal the strength with which environmental factors shape biotic communities at the coldest extremes of the planet and will help to improve projections of functional changes in tundra ecosystems with climate warming.

425 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work quantified the strength of the relationships between temperature and precipitation and 21 plant traits from 447,961 species-site combinations worldwide and used meta-analysis to provide an overall answer to the question.
Abstract: Question: Are plant traits more closely correlated with mean annual temperature, or with mean annual precipitation? Location: Global. Methods: We quantified the strength of the relationships between temperature and precipitation and 21 plant traits from 447,961 species-site combinations worldwide. We used meta-analysis to provide an overall answer to our question.

327 citations

Book ChapterDOI
TL;DR: Trait Driver Theory provides a baseline for recasting the predictions of ecological theories based on species richness in terms of the shape of trait distributions and integrating how specific traits then ‘scale up’ to influence ecosystem functioning and the dynamics of species assemblages across climate gradients.
Abstract: Aim: More powerful tests of biodiversity theories need to move beyond species richness and explicitly focus on mechanisms generating diversity via trait composition The rise of trait-based ecology has led to an increased focus on the distribution and dynamics of traits across broad geographic and climatic gradients and how these distributions influence ecosystem function However, a general theory of trait-based ecology, that can apply across different scales (eg species that differ in size) and gradients (eg temperature), has yet to be formulated While research focused on metabolic and allometric scaling theory provides the basis for such a theory, it does not explicitly account for differences in traits within and across taxa, such as variation in the optimal temperature for growth Here we synthesize trait-based and metabolic scaling approaches into a framework that we term ‘Trait Driver Theory’ or TDT It shows that the shape and dynamics of trait and size distributions can be linked to fundamental drivers of community assembly and how the community will respond to future drivers To assess predictions and assumptions of TDT, we review several theoretical studies and recent empirical studies spanning local and biogeographic gradients Further, we analyze how the shift in trait distributions influences ecosystem processes across an elevational gradient and a 140-year-long ecological experiment We show that TDT provides a baseline for (i) recasting the predictions of ecological theories based on species richness in terms of the shape of trait distributions and (ii) integrating how specific traits, including body size, and functional diversity then ‘scale up’ to influence ecosystem functioning and the dynamics of species assemblages across climate gradients Further, TDT offers a novel framework to integrate trait, metabolic/allometric, and species-richness-based approaches to better predict functional biogeography and how assemblages of species have and may respond to climate change

298 citations


Cites background from "Latitudinal gradients as natural la..."

  • ..., 2011; Swenson and Enquist, 2007) and to predict large-scale ecosystem shifts due to climate change (Elser et al., 2010; Frenne et al., 2013)....

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  • ...…the forces that structure larger scale biodiversity gradients (Belmaker and Jetz, 2013; Han et al., 2005; Reich, 2005; Reich and Oleksyn, 2004; Safi et al., 2011; Swenson and Enquist, 2007) and to predict large-scale ecosystem shifts due to climate change (Elser et al., 2010; Frenne et al., 2013)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
14 Nov 2019-Cell
TL;DR: This work investigates the latitudinal gradients and global predictors of plankton diversity across archaea, bacteria, eukaryotes, and major virus clades using both molecular and imaging data from Tara Oceans to show a decline of diversity for most planktonic groups toward the poles.

217 citations


Cites background from "Latitudinal gradients as natural la..."

  • ...Unraveling patterns of diversity across macroclimatic gradients, such as the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), is a way to anticipate the effects of climate change (Algar et al., 2009; Frenne et al., 2013)....

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References
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Journal Article
TL;DR: Copyright (©) 1999–2012 R Foundation for Statistical Computing; permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Abstract: Copyright (©) 1999–2012 R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the R Core Team.

272,030 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas (excluding Antarctica) at a spatial resolution of 30 arc s (often referred to as 1-km spatial resolution).
Abstract: We developed interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas (excluding Antarctica) at a spatial resolution of 30 arc s (often referred to as 1-km spatial resolution). The climate elements considered were monthly precipitation and mean, minimum, and maximum temperature. Input data were gathered from a variety of sources and, where possible, were restricted to records from the 1950–2000 period. We used the thin-plate smoothing spline algorithm implemented in the ANUSPLIN package for interpolation, using latitude, longitude, and elevation as independent variables. We quantified uncertainty arising from the input data and the interpolation by mapping weather station density, elevation bias in the weather stations, and elevation variation within grid cells and through data partitioning and cross validation. Elevation bias tended to be negative (stations lower than expected) at high latitudes but positive in the tropics. Uncertainty is highest in mountainous and in poorly sampled areas. Data partitioning showed high uncertainty of the surfaces on isolated islands, e.g. in the Pacific. Aggregating the elevation and climate data to 10 arc min resolution showed an enormous variation within grid cells, illustrating the value of high-resolution surfaces. A comparison with an existing data set at 10 arc min resolution showed overall agreement, but with significant variation in some regions. A comparison with two high-resolution data sets for the United States also identified areas with large local differences, particularly in mountainous areas. Compared to previous global climatologies, ours has the following advantages: the data are at a higher spatial resolution (400 times greater or more); more weather station records were used; improved elevation data were used; and more information about spatial patterns of uncertainty in the data is available. Owing to the overall low density of available climate stations, our surfaces do not capture of all variation that may occur at a resolution of 1 km, particularly of precipitation in mountainous areas. In future work, such variation might be captured through knowledgebased methods and inclusion of additional co-variates, particularly layers obtained through remote sensing. Copyright  2005 Royal Meteorological Society.

17,977 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest that the term "fragmentation" should be reserved for the breaking apart of habitat, independent of habitat loss, and that fragmentation per se has much weaker effects on biodiversity that are at least as likely to be positive as negative.
Abstract: ■ Abstract The literature on effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity is huge. It is also very diverse, with different authors measuring fragmentation in different ways and, as a consequence, drawing different conclusions regarding both the magnitude and direction of its effects. Habitat fragmentation is usually defined as a landscape-scale process involving both habitat loss and the breaking apart of habitat. Results of empirical studies of habitat fragmentation are often difficult to interpret because (a) many researchers measure fragmentation at the patch scale, not the landscape scale and (b) most researchers measure fragmentation in ways that do not distinguish between habitat loss and habitat fragmentation per se, i.e., the breaking apart of habitat after controlling for habitat loss. Empirical studies to date suggest that habitat loss has large, consistently negative effects on biodiversity. Habitat fragmentation per se has much weaker effects on biodiversity that are at least as likely to be positive as negative. Therefore, to correctly interpret the influence of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity, the effects of these two components of fragmentation must be measured independently. More studies of the independent effects of habitat loss and fragmentation per se are needed to determine the factors that lead to positive versus negative effects of fragmentation per se. I suggest that the term “fragmentation” should be reserved for the breaking apart of habitat, independent of habitat loss.

6,341 citations


"Latitudinal gradients as natural la..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Human influence, of which habitat fragmentation, loss and deterioration are probably most important, affect the population dynamics and abundance of numerous species as well as patterns of biodiversity (Fahrig 2003)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
22 Jun 2000-Nature
TL;DR: The present genetic structure of populations, species and communities has been mainly formed by Quaternary ice ages, and genetic, fossil and physical data combined can greatly help understanding of how organisms were so affected.
Abstract: Global climate has fluctuated greatly during the past three million years, leading to the recent major ice ages. An inescapable consequence for most living organisms is great changes in their distribution, which are expressed differently in boreal, temperate and tropical zones. Such range changes can be expected to have genetic consequences, and the advent of DNA technology provides most suitable markers to examine these. Several good data sets are now available, which provide tests of expectations, insights into species colonization and unexpected genetic subdivision and mixture of species. The genetic structure of human populations may be viewed in the same context. The present genetic structure of populations, species and communities has been mainly formed by Quaternary ice ages, and genetic, fossil and physical data combined can greatly help our understanding of how organisms were so affected.

6,341 citations


"Latitudinal gradients as natural la..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Also, the process of post-glacial recolonization in the Northern hemisphere has generated a latitudinal pattern of genetic differentiation, with northernmost populations usually showing reduced neutral genetic diversity (Hewitt 2000; Davis & Shaw 2001)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper advocates multifaceted approaches to the study of local adaptation, and stresses the need for experiments explicitly addressing hypotheses about the role of particular ecological and genetic factors that promote or hinder local adaptation.
Abstract: Studies of local adaptation provide important insights into the power of natural selection relative to gene flow and other evolutionary forces. They are a paradigm for testing evolutionary hypotheses about traits favoured by particular environmental factors. This paper is an attempt to summarize the conceptual framework for local adaptation studies. We first review theoretical work relevant for local adaptation. Then we discuss reciprocal transplant and common garden experiments designed to detect local adaptation in the pattern of deme · habitat interaction for fitness. Finally, we review research questions and approaches to studying the processes of local adaptation ‐ divergent natural selection, dispersal and gene flow, and other processes affecting adaptive differentiation of local demes. We advocate multifaceted approaches to the study of local adaptation, and stress the need for experiments explicitly addressing hypotheses about the role of particular ecological and genetic factors that promote or hinder local adaptation. Experimental evolution of replicated populations in controlled spatially heterogeneous environments allow direct tests of such hypotheses, and thus would be a valuable way to complement research on natural populations.

3,215 citations


"Latitudinal gradients as natural la..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…common gardens stresses – at least within these study species – the importance of directional selection and adaptation to local environmental factors (Kawecki & Ebert 2004; Leimu & Fischer 2008; Montesinos-Navarro et al. 2011) which might affect the ability of these plant populations to respond…...

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