Geographic scale and disturbance influence intraspecific trait variability in leaves and roots of North American understorey plants

Kumordzi, Bright B.; Aubin, Isabelle; Cardou, Françoise; Shipley, Bill; Violle, Cyrille; Johnstone, Jill F.; Anand, Madhur; Arsenault, André; Bell, Frederick W.; Bergeron, Yves; Boulangeat, Isabelle; Brousseau, Maxime; Grandpré, Louis De; Delagrange, Sylvain; Fenton, Nicole J.; Gravel, Dominique; Macdonald, S. Ellen; Hamel, Benoı̂t; Higelin, Morgane; Hébert, François; Isabel, Nathalie; Mallik, Azim U.; McIntosh, Anne C.S.; McLaren, Jennie R.; Messier, Christian; Morris, Dave M.; Thiffault, Nelson; Tremblay, Jean‐Pierre; Munson, Alison D.

doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13402

Cited by 48 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…S4). Prior studies also observed idiosyncratic patterns in leaf (Albert et al, 2010;Kichenin et al, 2013;Read et al, 2017) and root trait variation along various environmental gradients (Kumordzi et al, 2019;Roybal & Butterfield, 2019;Zhou et al, 2019) suggesting that idiosyncrasy in intraspecific trait patterns may be a widespread phenomenon. As the different degrees of,…”

Section: Idiosyncratic Root Trait Patterns Along a Complex Environmenmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Defrenne et al (2019) also found that their smallest sampling scalesi.e., the individual root branch and the soil blocks from which roots were collectedexplained up to 100 % of root trait variation of Douglas fir trees along a 600-km, biogeographic gradient in Canada. Similarly, Kumordzi et al (2019) showed that a large part of root trait variation was explained at the local (i.e., sites within their gradient with comparable climate and soil characteristics) rather than at the regional scale (i.e., their ~5000 km long gradient). The large heterogeneity of soils at small spatial scales (Ettema & Wardle, 2002) may cause roots to respond to very local soil properties, for example by producing more lateral roots when encountering a nutrient-rich patch (Hodge, 2004).…”

Section: Low Intraspecific Variation In Root Traits With Elevationmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The type and strength of intraspecific root trait adjustments to elevation probably depends partially on species identity, as shown for leaves along elevation gradients (Albert et al, 2010;Kichenin et al, 2013) and roots along climatic and rainfall gradients (Kumordzi et al, 2019;Zhou et al, 2019).…”

Section: Accepted Articlementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Studies investigating intraspecific root trait variation are usually restricted to a single (e.g., Bristiel et al, 2019;Defrenne et al, 2019;Ostonen et al, 2011;Zadworny et al, 2016) or small number of species (Freschet et al, 2018;Kumordzi et al, 2019;Read et al, 2017) and general patterns…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies investigating intraspecific root trait variation are usually restricted to a single (e.g. Bristiel et al., 2019; Defrenne et al., 2019; Ostonen et al., 2011; Zadworny et al., 2016) or small number of species (Freschet et al., 2018; Kumordzi et al., 2019; Read et al., 2017) and general patterns remain largely unclear (Bardgett et al., 2014). Here, we test how roots of 11 species change with environmental variation, by examining how root traits vary along an elevation gradient.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patterns in intraspecific variation in root traits are species‐specific along an elevation gradient

et al. 2020

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Patterns in intraspecific variation in root traits are species-specific along an elevation gradient Abstract 1. Intraspecific trait variation is an important driver of plant performance in different environments. Although roots acquire essential resources that vary with the environment, most studies have focused on intraspecific variation in leaf traits, and research on roots is often restricted to a few species. It remains largely unclear how and to what extent root traits vary with the environment and whether general intraspecific patterns exist across species. 2. We compared intraspecific variation in specific root length (SRL), root diameter, root tissue density (RTD) and root branching density of 11 species along a 1000 m elevation gradient in the French Alps. We tested 1) the extent of intra-versus interspecific root trait variation along the gradient, 2) whether intraspecific trait patterns with elevation were consistent among species and 3) whether environmental variables better explained intraspecific variation in root traits than elevation. Specifically, we hypothesised that within a species, root trait values would adjust to enhance resource acquisition (either through an increase in SRL or root diameter, and/or branching density) and/or conservation (increased RTD) at higher elevations. 3. Species identity explained most of the overall variation in root traits. Elevation explained only a minor proportion of intraspecific root trait variation, which varied more strongly within than between elevations. Also, trait relationships with elevation rarely agreed with our hypotheses, Accepted Article This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved varied strongly across species, and were often differently related to environmental variation. Generally, climate, soil and vegetation properties better explained intraspecific root variation than elevation, but these relationships were highly species-dependent. 4. Along complex environmental gradients where multiple properties simultaneously change, roots of different species vary in different ways, leading to species-specific patterns in intraspecific root trait variation. The lack of support for our hypotheses may be caused by the multiple interactions between environmental properties, small-scale soil heterogeneity, species phylogeny, and changing plant-plant interactions. Our findings suggest that, to enhance our understanding of the effects of environmental change on plant performance, we need to better integrate the multiple dimensions of plant responses to change and measure a broader set of root traits and environmental variables.

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Section: Idiosyncratic Root Trait Patterns Along a Complex Environmenmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Low Intraspecific Variation In Root Traits With Elevationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Accepted Articlementioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patterns in intraspecific variation in root traits are species‐specific along an elevation gradient

et al. 2020

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The potential of trait data to increase the availability of bioindicators: A case study using plant conservatism values

Crisfield

Ficken

Allen

et al. 2023

Ecological Applications

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Biological indicators are commonly used to evaluate ecosystem condition. However, their use is often constrained by the availability of information with which to assign species-specific indicator values, which reflect species' responses to the environmental conditions being evaluated by the indicator.As these responses are driven by underlying traits, and trait data for numerous species are available in publicly accessible databases, one possible approach to approximating missing bioindicator values is through traits. We used the Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) framework and its component indicator of disturbance sensitivity, species-specific ecological conservatism scores (Cscores), as a study system to test the potential of this approach. We tested the consistency of relationships between trait values and expert-assigned C-scores and the trait-based predictability of C-scores across five regions. Furthermore, as a proof-of-concept exercise, we used a multi-trait model to try to reconstruct C-scores, and compared the model predictions to expert-assigned scores. Out of 20 traits tested, there was evidence of regional consistency for germination rate, growth rate, propagation type, dispersal unit, and leaf nitrogen. However, the individual traits showed low predictability (R 2 = 0.1-0.2) for C-scores, and a multi-trait model produced substantial classification errors; in many cases, >50% of species were misclassified. The mismatches may largely be explained by the inability to generalize regionally varying C-scores from geographically neutral/naive trait data stored in databases, and the synthetic nature of Cscores. Based on these results, we recommend possible next steps for expanding the availability of species-based bioindication frameworks such as the FQA. These steps include increasing the availability of geographic and environmental data in trait databases, incorporating data about intraspecific trait variability into these databases, conducting hypothesis-driven investigations into trait-indicator relationships, and having regional experts review our results to determine if there are patterns in the species that were correctly or incorrectly classified.

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Functional responses of understory plants to natural disturbance‐based management in eastern and western Canada

Noualhaguet,

Work,

Nock

et al. 2024

Ecological Applications

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Natural disturbance‐based management (NDBM) is hypothesized to maintain managed forest ecosystem integrity by reducing differences between natural and managed forests. The effectiveness of this approach often entails local comparisons of species composition or diversity for a variety of biota from managed and unmanaged forests. Understory vegetation is regularly the focus of such comparison because of its importance in nutrient cycling, forest regeneration, and for wildlife. However, larger scale comparisons between regions with distinct species assemblages may require a trait‐based approach to better understand understory responses to disturbance. We compared the long‐term effects of retention harvesting on understory vegetation in two large experimental study sites located in eastern and western regions of the Canadian boreal forest. These sites included the Sylviculture en Aménagement Forestier Ecosystémique (SAFE) experiment and the Ecosystem Management Emulating Natural Disturbance (EMEND) experiment, located in the eastern and western regions of Canada, respectively. EMEND and SAFE share common boreal understory species but have distinct tree communities, soils, and climate. Both experiments were designed to evaluate how increasing tree retention after harvest affects biodiversity. Here, we examined taxonomic richness, functional diversity, and functional composition (using community trait mean values) of understory plant communities, and also examine intraspecific trait variability (ITV) for five species common and abundant in both experiments. We observed the limited impacts of retention level on richness, functional diversity, and functional composition of understory plants 20 years postharvest. However, ITV of leaf morphological traits varied between retention levels within each experiment, depending on the species identity. Common species had different functional responses to retention level, showing species‐specific reactions to environmental variation. Our result suggests that understory plant communities in the boreal forest achieve resilience to disturbance both in terms of interspecific and intraspecific functional trait diversity. Such diversity may be key to maintaining understory biodiversity in the face of future disturbances and environmental change. Our results reveal the significance of ITV in plant communities for understanding responses to forest harvesting and the importance of choosing appropriate traits when studying species responses to the environment.

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Geographic scale and disturbance influence intraspecific trait variability in leaves and roots of North American understorey plants

Cited by 48 publications

References 74 publications

Patterns in intraspecific variation in root traits are species‐specific along an elevation gradient

Patterns in intraspecific variation in root traits are species‐specific along an elevation gradient

The potential of trait data to increase the availability of bioindicators: A case study using plant conservatism values

Functional responses of understory plants to natural disturbance‐based management in eastern and western Canada

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