Revisiting the Holy Grail: using plant functional traits to understand ecological processes
Jennifer L. Funk,Julie E. Larson,Gregory M. Ames,Bradley J. Butterfield,Jeannine Cavender-Bares,Jennifer Firn,Daniel C. Laughlin,Ariana E. Sutton-Grier,Ariana E. Sutton-Grier,Laura Williams,Justin P. Wright +10 more
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In this article, the authors highlight recent work and outstanding questions in three areas: (i) selecting relevant traits; (ii) describing intraspecific trait variation and incorporating this variation into models; and (iii) scaling trait data to community and ecosystem-level processes.Abstract:
One of ecology's grand challenges is developing general rules to explain and predict highly complex systems. Understanding and predicting ecological processes from species' traits has been considered a 'Holy Grail' in ecology. Plant functional traits are increasingly being used to develop mechanistic models that can predict how ecological communities will respond to abiotic and biotic perturbations and how species will affect ecosystem function and services in a rapidly changing world; however, significant challenges remain. In this review, we highlight recent work and outstanding questions in three areas: (i) selecting relevant traits; (ii) describing intraspecific trait variation and incorporating this variation into models; and (iii) scaling trait data to community- and ecosystem-level processes. Over the past decade, there have been significant advances in the characterization of plant strategies based on traits and trait relationships, and the integration of traits into multivariate indices and models of community and ecosystem function. However, the utility of trait-based approaches in ecology will benefit from efforts that demonstrate how these traits and indices influence organismal, community, and ecosystem processes across vegetation types, which may be achieved through meta-analysis and enhancement of trait databases. Additionally, intraspecific trait variation and species interactions need to be incorporated into predictive models using tools such as Bayesian hierarchical modelling. Finally, existing models linking traits to community and ecosystem processes need to be empirically tested for their applicability to be realized.read more
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Functional trait diversity maximizes ecosystem multifunctionality.
Nicolas Gross,Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet,Pierre Liancourt,Miguel Berdugo,Nicholas J. Gotelli,Fernando T. Maestre +5 more
TL;DR: A scaling relationship is uncovered between the abundance distribution of two key plant functional traits and multifunctionality in 124 dryland plant communities spread over all continents except Antarctica, which quantifies how much trait diversity is required to maximize multifunctionsality locally.
Journal ArticleDOI
Root traits as drivers of plant and ecosystem functioning: current understanding, pitfalls and future research needs
Grégoire T. Freschet,Grégoire T. Freschet,Catherine Roumet,Louise H. Comas,Monique Weemstra,A. Glyn Bengough,A. Glyn Bengough,Boris Rewald,Richard D. Bardgett,Gerlinde B. De Deyn,David W. Johnson,Jitka Klimešová,Martin Lukac,Martin Lukac,M. Luke McCormack,Ina C. Meier,Ina C. Meier,Loïc Pagès,Hendrik Poorter,Hendrik Poorter,Iván Prieto,Nina Wurzburger,Marcin Zadworny,Agnieszka Bagniewska-Zadworna,Elison B. Blancaflor,Ivano Brunner,Arthur Gessler,Sarah E. Hobbie,Colleen M. Iversen,Liesje Mommer,Catherine Picon-Cochard,Johannes A. Postma,Laura Rose,Peter Ryser,Michael Scherer-Lorenzen,Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,Tao Sun,Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes,Alexandra Weigelt,Larry M. York,Alexia Stokes +40 more
TL;DR: It is found that below-ground traits with widest importance in plant and ecosystem functioning are not those most commonly measured, and advocate that establishing causal hierarchical links among root traits will provide a hypothesis-based framework to identify the most parsimonious sets of traits with strongest influence on the functions, and to link genotypes to plant andcosystem functioning.
Journal ArticleDOI
A research agenda for seed-trait functional ecology.
Arne Saatkamp,Anne Cochrane,Lucy Commander,Lydia K. Guja,Lydia K. Guja,Borja Jiménez-Alfaro,Julie E. Larson,Adrienne B. Nicotra,Peter Poschlod,Fernando A. O. Silveira,Adam T. Cross,Emma L. Dalziell,John B. Dickie,Todd E. Erickson,Alessandra Fidelis,Anne Fuchs,Anne Fuchs,Peter J. Golos,Michael Hope,Wolfgang Lewandrowski,David J. Merritt,Ben P. Miller,Russell G. Miller,Catherine A. Offord,Mark K. J. Ooi,Annisa Satyanti,Annisa Satyanti,Annisa Satyanti,Karen D. Sommerville,Ryan Tangney,Sean Tomlinson,Shane R. Turner,Jeffrey L. Walck +32 more
TL;DR: This work proposes broadening the range of morphological, physiological and biochemical seed traits to add new understanding on plant niches, population dynamics and community assembly and lays the foundation for a seed-trait functional network which will underpin and facilitate trait-based inferences.
Journal ArticleDOI
AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds.
Joseph A. Tobias,Catherine Sheard,Alex L. Pigot,Adam J. M. Devenish,Jingyi Yang,Ferran Sayol,Montague H. C. Neate-Clegg,Nico Alioravainen,Thomas L. Weeks,Robert A. Barber,Patrick Walkden,Hannah E. A. MacGregor,Samuel E. I. Jones,Claire Vincent,Anna G. Phillips,Nicola M. Marples,Flavia A. Montaño-Centellas,Victor Leandro-Silva,Santiago Claramunt,Bianca Darski,Benjamin G. Freeman,Tom P. Bregman,Christopher R. Cooney,Emma C. Hughes,Elliot J. R. Capp,Zoë K. Varley,Nicholas R. Friedman,H. Korntheuer,Andrea Corrales-Vargas,Christopher H. Trisos,Brian E. Weeks,Dagmar M. Hanz,Till Töpfer,Gustavo A. Bravo,Vladimír Remeš,Larissa Nowak,Lincoln Silva Carneiro,A. Moncada R.,Beata Matysioková,Daniel T. Baldassarre,Alejandra Martínez-Salinas,Jared D. Wolfe,Philip Chapman,Benjamin G. Daly,Marjorie C. Sorensen,Alexander Neu,Michael A. Ford,Rebekah J. Mayhew,Luís Fábio Silveira,David J. Kelly,Nathaniel N. D. Annorbah,Henry S. Pollock,Ada Grabowska-Zhang,Jay P. McEntee,Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez,Camila G. Meneses,Marcia Muñoz,Luke L. Powell,Gabriel A. Jamie,Thomas J. Matthews,Oscar W. Johnson,Guilherme R. R. Brito,Kristof Zyskowski,Ross Crates,Michael G. Harvey,Maura Jurado Zevallos,Peter A. Hosner,Tom Bradfer-Lawrence,James M. Maley,F. Gary Stiles,Hevana Santana de Lima,Kaiya L. Provost,Moses Chibesa,Mmatjie L. Mashao,Jeffrey T. Howard,Edson Mlamba,Marcus A.H. Chua,Bicheng Li,Maria I. Gómez,Natalia C. García,Martin Päckert,Jérôme Fuchs,Jarome R. Ali,Elizabeth P. Derryberry,Monica L. Carlson,Rolly C. Urriza,Kristin E. Brzeski,Dewi M. Prawiradilaga,Matt J. Rayner,Eliot T. Miller,Rauri C. K. Bowie,René-Marie Lafontaine,R. Paul Scofield,Yingqiang Lou,Lankani Somarathna,Denis Lepage,Marshall Illif,Eike Lena Neuschulz,Mathias Templin,D. Matthias Dehling,Jacob C. Cooper,Olivier S. G. Pauwels,Kangkuso Analuddin,Jon Fjeldså,Nathalie Seddon,Paul R. Sweet,Fabrice DeClerck,Luciano Nicolás Naka,Jeffrey D. Brawn,Alexandre Aleixo,Katrin Böhning-Gaese,Carsten Rahbek,Susanne A. Fritz,Gavin H. Thomas,Matthias Schleuning +114 more
TL;DR: The AVONET dataset as discussed by the authors contains comprehensive functional trait data for all birds, including six ecological variables, 11 continuous morphological traits, and information on range size and location, from 90,020 individuals of 11,009 extant bird species sampled from 181 countries.
Journal ArticleDOI
Adjustments and coordination of hydraulic, leaf and stem traits along a water availability gradient.
Teresa Rosas,Maurizio Mencuccini,Josep Barba,Hervé Cochard,Sandra Saura-Mas,Jordi Martínez-Vilalta +5 more
TL;DR: Overall, the results indicate that intraspecific adjustments along the water availability gradient relied primarily on changes in resource allocation between sapwood and leaf area and in leaf water relations.
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