Rebuilding community ecology from functional traits

McGill, Brian J.; Enquist, Brian J.; Weiher, Evan; Westoby, Mark

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2006.02.002

Cited by 3,854 publications

(3,904 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Functional traits affect individual plant performance (i.e., growth, reproduction and survival), thus informing the structure and dynamics of vegetation (McGill et al. 2006; Ackerly and Cornwell 2007; Violle et al. 2007) as well as plant community responses to environmental variation (Lavorel and Garnier 2002) and competition (Kunstler et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across broadscale climate gradients, especially from the tropics to the temperate zone (Fischer 1960), environmental filtering is hypothesized to be a major driver of the structure and functioning of ecosystems (von Humboldt and Bonpland 1807; Schimper and Andreas 1908; Solbrig 1994; Kleidon and Mooney 2000; McGill et al. 2006; Malhi et al. 2010; Kerkhoff et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Examining variation in the leaf mass per area of dominant species across two contrasting tropical gradients in light of community assembly

Neyret

Bentley

Oliveras

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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Understanding variation in key functional traits across gradients in high diversity systems and the ecology of community changes along gradients in these systems is crucial in light of conservation and climate change. We examined inter‐ and intraspecific variation in leaf mass per area (LMA) of sun and shade leaves along a 3330‐m elevation gradient in Peru, and in sun leaves across a forest–savanna vegetation gradient in Brazil. We also compared LMA variance ratios (T‐statistics metrics) to null models to explore internal (i.e., abiotic) and environmental filtering on community structure along the gradients. Community‐weighted LMA increased with decreasing forest cover in Brazil, likely due to increased light availability and water stress, and increased with elevation in Peru, consistent with the leaf economic spectrum strategy expected in colder, less productive environments. A very high species turnover was observed along both environmental gradients, and consequently, the first source of variation in LMA was species turnover. Variation in LMA at the genus or family levels was greater in Peru than in Brazil. Using dominant trees to examine possible filters on community assembly, we found that in Brazil, internal filtering was strongest in the forest, while environmental filtering was observed in the dry savanna. In Peru, internal filtering was observed along 80% of the gradient, perhaps due to variation in taxa or interspecific competition. Environmental filtering was observed at cloud zone edges and in lowlands, possibly due to water and nutrient availability, respectively. These results related to variation in LMA indicate that biodiversity in species rich tropical assemblages may be structured by differential niche‐based processes. In the future, specific mechanisms generating these patterns of variation in leaf functional traits across tropical environmental gradients should be explored.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining variation in the leaf mass per area of dominant species across two contrasting tropical gradients in light of community assembly

Neyret

Bentley

Oliveras

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…(2006): elucidating mechanisms, achieving generality across systems, and moving toward predictive functional ecology. With a high‐dimensional approach, post hoc analysis may help identify trait–environment relationships and candidate traits for subsequent experimentation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In ecology, there has been a conceptual shift to trait‐based approaches that capture these phenotypic determinants of the niche (Cadotte, Carscadden, & Mirotchnick, 2011; McGill, Enquist, Weiher, & Westoby, 2006), and this trait‐based approach is increasingly used to understand community assembly, coexistence, and ecosystem function (Díaz & Cabido, 2001; Shipley, Vile, & Garnier, 2006; Silvertown, 2004). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, a trait is any measurable morphological, behavioral, phenological, physiological, or biochemical phenotypic character. Although any of these traits may influence organismal fitness in certain environments, only traits that have been empirically or observationally linked to fitness or performance are termed “functional traits” (e.g., McGill et al., 2006). As part of our study, we examined phenotypic variation within a species pool and evaluated whether species were better differentiated by known functional traits or other phenotypic characters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trait dimensionality and population choice alter estimates of phenotypic dissimilarity

Carscadden

Cadotte

Gilbert

2017

Ecology and Evolution

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The ecological niche is a multi‐dimensional concept including aspects of resource use, environmental tolerance, and interspecific interactions, and the degree to which niches overlap is central to many ecological questions. Plant phenotypic traits are increasingly used as surrogates of species niches, but we lack an understanding of how key sampling decisions affect our ability to capture phenotypic differences among species. Using trait data of ecologically distinct monkeyflower (Mimulus) congeners, we employed linear discriminant analysis to determine how (1) dimensionality (the number and type of traits) and (2) variation within species influence how well measured traits reflect phenotypic differences among species. We conducted analyses using vegetative and floral traits in different combinations of up to 13 traits and compared the performance of commonly used functional traits such as specific leaf area against other morphological traits. We tested the importance of intraspecific variation by assessing how population choice changed our ability to discriminate species. Neither using key functional traits nor sampling across plant functions and organs maximized species discrimination. When using few traits, vegetative traits performed better than combinations of vegetative and floral traits or floral traits alone. Overall, including more traits increased our ability to detect phenotypic differences among species. Population choice and the number of traits used had comparable impacts on discriminating species. We addressed methodological challenges that have undermined cross‐study comparability of trait‐based approaches. Our results emphasize the importance of sampling among‐population trait variation and suggest that a high‐dimensional approach may best capture phenotypic variation among species with distinct niches.

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Spatiotemporal dimensions of community assembly

et al. 2022

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Ecological communities are assembled through a series of multiple processes, including dispersal, abiotic and biotic filtering, and ecological drift. Although these assembly processes act in concert to structure local communities, their relative importance is considerably variable among study systems. While such contingency of community assembly has been widely appreciated, the empirical and theoretical evidence is scattered around in the literature, and few efforts have been made to synthesize it. In this mini‐review, we summarize the accumulated evidence of the context‐dependency of community assembly rules, to reach a rough generalization of the contingency. Specifically, we argue that spatial and temporal dimensions can serve as general axes that regulate the relative importance of assembly processes. To this end, we synthesize the current understanding of how the relative importance of multiple assembly processes changes with spatial scales and complexity, and with time in the long and short terms. This review concludes that spatial and temporal dimensions can be common currencies of community assembly rules that are shared across various systems.

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Rebuilding community ecology from functional traits

Cited by 3,854 publications

References 61 publications

Examining variation in the leaf mass per area of dominant species across two contrasting tropical gradients in light of community assembly

Examining variation in the leaf mass per area of dominant species across two contrasting tropical gradients in light of community assembly

Trait dimensionality and population choice alter estimates of phenotypic dissimilarity

Spatiotemporal dimensions of community assembly

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