<i>Plant‐O‐Matic</i>: a dynamic and mobile guide to all plants of the Americas

Goldsmith, Gregory R.; Morueta‐Holme, Naia; Sandel, Brody; Fitz, Eric D.; Fitz, Samuel D.; Boyle, Brad; Casler, Nathan; Engemann, Kristine; Jørgensen, Peter M.; Kraft, Nathan J. B.; McGill, Brian J.; Peet, Robert K.; Piel, William H.; Spencer, Nick; Svenning, Jens Christian; Thiers, Barbara M.; Violle, Cyrille; Wiser, Susan K.; Enquist, Brian J.

doi:10.1111/2041-210x.12548

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…More details on range size estimation can be found in Goldsmith et al . (). The land area of the Americas was then divided into 100 × 100 km grid cells and the species assemblage of each grid cell was defined as all species with ranges falling within the cell.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Temperature shapes opposing latitudinal gradients of plant taxonomic and phylogenetic β diversity

et al. 2019

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Latitudinal and elevational richness gradients have received much attention from ecologists but there is little consensus on underlying causes. One possible proximate cause is increased levels of species turnover, or β diversity, in the tropics compared to temperate regions. Here, we leverage a large botanical dataset to map taxonomic and phylogenetic β diversity, as mean turnover between neighboring 100 × 100 km cells, across the Americas and determine key climatic drivers. We find taxonomic and tip‐weighted phylogenetic β diversity is higher in the tropics, but that basal‐weighted phylogenetic β diversity is highest in temperate regions. Supporting Janzen's ‘mountain passes’ hypothesis, tropical mountainous regions had higher β diversity than temperate regions for taxonomic and tip‐weighted metrics. The strongest climatic predictors of turnover were average temperature and temperature seasonality. Taken together, these results suggest β diversity is coupled to latitudinal richness gradients and that temperature is a major driver of plant community composition and change.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Temperature shapes opposing latitudinal gradients of plant taxonomic and phylogenetic β diversity

et al. 2019

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“…Species with 3-4 records had their ranges defined as convex hulls. Ranges for species with >5 records were modelled using the MAXENT species distribution modelling algorithm with a balanced set of climate predictors and spatial eigenvectors (Phillips, Anderson, & Schapire, 2006; see Goldsmith et al, 2016, for details on the range maps methodology).…”

Section: Species Distribution Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial patterns and climate relationships of major plant traits in the New World differ between woody and herbaceous species

Šímová

Violle

Svenning

et al. 2018

Journal of Biogeography

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107

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Aim Despite several recent efforts to map plant traits and to identify their climatic drivers, there are still major gaps. Global trait patterns for major functional groups, in particular, the differences between woody and herbaceous plants, have yet to be identified. Here, we take advantage of big data efforts to compile plant species occurrence and trait data to analyse the spatial patterns of assemblage means and variances of key plant traits. We tested whether these patterns and their climatic drivers are similar for woody and herbaceous plants. Location New World (North and South America). Methods Using the largest currently available database of plant occurrences, we provide maps of 200 × 200 km grid‐cell trait means and variances for both woody and herbaceous species and identify environmental drivers related to these patterns. We focus on six plant traits: maximum plant height, specific leaf area, seed mass, wood density, leaf nitrogen concentration and leaf phosphorus concentration. Results For woody assemblages, we found a strong climate signal for both means and variances of most of the studied traits, consistent with strong environmental filtering. In contrast, for herbaceous assemblages, spatial patterns of trait means and variances were more variable, the climate signal on trait means was often different and weaker. Main conclusion Trait variations for woody versus herbaceous assemblages appear to reflect alternative strategies and differing environmental constraints. Given that most large‐scale trait studies are based on woody species, the strikingly different biogeographic patterns of herbaceous traits suggest that a more synthetic framework is needed that addresses how suites of traits within and across broad functional groups respond to climate.

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“…To reduce the effects of sampling bias characteristic of occurrence datasets compiled from multiple resources, we used the BIEN 2.0 range maps for 88,417 of plant species distributed in North and South America (Goldsmith et al, 2016). The BIEN database integrates standardized plant observations stemming from herbarium specimens and vegetation plot inventories.…”

Section: Distribution Data and Biome Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The geographic ranges for species with three or four occurrences were identified using a convex hull (c. 15% of the species). Finally, the range maps for species with at least five occurrences were obtained using the Maxent species distribution modeling algorithm, using 19 climatic layers as predictor variables and 19 spatial eigenvectors as filters to constrain over predictions by the models (see Goldsmith et al, 2016 for further details on range map methodology).…”

Section: Distribution Data and Biome Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant Functional Diversity and the Biogeography of Biomes in North and South America

et al. 2018

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The concept of the biome has a long history dating back to Carl Ludwig Willdenow and Alexander von Humboldt. However, while the association between climate and the structure and diversity of vegetation has a long history, scientists have only recently begun to develop a more synthetic understanding of biomes based on the evolution of plant diversity, function, and community assembly. At the broadest scales, climate filters species based on their functional attributes, and the resulting functional differences in dominant vegetation among biomes are important to modeling the global carbon cycle and the functioning of the Earth system. Nevertheless, across biomes, plant species have been shown to occupy a common set of global functional "spectra", reflecting variation in overall plant size, leaf economics, and hydraulics. Still, comprehensive measures of functional diversity and assessments of functional similarity have not been compared across biomes at continental to global scales. Here, we examine distributions of functional diversity of plant species across the biomes of North and South America, based on distributional information for > 80,000 vascular plant species and functional trait data for ca. 8,000 of those species. First, we show that despite progress in data integration and synthesis, significant knowledge shortfalls persist that limit our ability to quantify the functional biodiversity of biomes. Second, our analyses of the available data show that all the biomes in North and South America share a common pattern-most geographically common, widespread species in any biome tend to be functionally similar whereas the most functionally distinctive species are restricted in their distribution. Third, when only the widespread and functionally similar species in each biome are considered, biomes can be more readily distinguished functionally, and patterns of dissimilarity between biomes appear to reflect a correspondence between climate and Echeverría-Londoño et al. New World Functional Diversity functional niche space. Taken together, our results suggest that while the study of the functional diversity of biomes is still in its formative stages, further development of the field will yield insights linking evolution, biogeography, community assembly, and ecosystem function.

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Plant‐O‐Matic: a dynamic and mobile guide to all plants of the Americas

Cited by 16 publications

References 24 publications

Temperature shapes opposing latitudinal gradients of plant taxonomic and phylogenetic β diversity

Temperature shapes opposing latitudinal gradients of plant taxonomic and phylogenetic β diversity

Spatial patterns and climate relationships of major plant traits in the New World differ between woody and herbaceous species

Plant Functional Diversity and the Biogeography of Biomes in North and South America

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