What do you mean “functional” in ecology? Patterns versus processes

Volaire, Florence; Gleason, Sean M.; Delzon, Sylvain

doi:10.1002/ece3.6781

Cited by 41 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Furthermore, the traits used in our study are usually measured in standardized and optimum conditions. Therefore, our interpretations could be complemented by considering traits measured under fluctuating environmental conditions, such as traits accounting for seasonal adaptation, responses to biotic or abiotic stress, or perturbation, suitable for inferring ecological processes (Volaire et al 2020). It should also be noted that SLA can be unrelated to the species' photosynthetic capacity and growth rates, especially in soils with low fertility, as shown in tropical forest understories (van der Sande et al 2018, Modolo et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The leaf economic and plant size spectra of European forest understory vegetation

et al. 2021

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Forest understories play a vital role in ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. However, the extent to which environmental conditions drive dominant ecological strategies in forest understories at the continental scale remains understudied. Here, we used ~29 500 forest vegetation plots sampled across Europe and classified into 25 forest types to explore the relative role of macroclimate, soil pH and tree canopy cover in driving abundance‐weighted patterns in the leaf economic spectrum (LES) and plant size spectrum (PSS) of forest understories (shrub and herb layers). We calculated LES using specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and PSS using plant height and seed mass of vascular plant species found in the understories. We found that forest understories had more conservative leaf economics in areas with more extreme mean annual temperatures (mainly Fennoscandia and the Mediterranean Basin), more extreme soil pH and under more open canopies. Warm and summer‐dry regions around the Mediterranean Basin and areas of Atlantic Europe also had taller understories with heavier seeds than continental temperate or boreal areas. Understories of broadleaved deciduous forests, such as Fagus forests on non‐acid soils, or ravine forests, more commonly hosted species with acquisitive leaf economics. In contrast, some coniferous forests, such as Pinus, Larix and Picea mire forests, or Pinus sylvestris light taiga and sclerophyllous forests, more commonly hosted species with conservative leaf economics. Our findings highlight the importance of macroclimate and soil factors in driving trait variation of understory communities at the continental scale and the mediator effect of canopy cover on these relationships. We also provide the first maps and analyses of LES and PSS of forest understories across Europe and give evidence that the understories of European forest types are differently positioned along major axes of trait variation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The leaf economic and plant size spectra of European forest understory vegetation

et al. 2021

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“…Plant functional traits are those impacting their demographic fitness, that is, fecundity, growth, development or survival (Violle et al., 2007; Volaire et al., 2020). Notably, major functional traits in vascular plants are concentrated and coordinated in a multidimensional space explaining plant form and function at a global scale (Díaz et al., 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polyploidy promotes divergent evolution across the leaf economics spectrum and plant edaphic niche in the Dianthus broteri complex

2021

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“…Second, traits are often measured under fixed environmental conditions (Yang et al 2018). Yet, trait plasticity can be an important predictor of demographic change, either as an indicator of species' ability to acclimate to new environmental conditions (Siefert et al 2015;Zhang et al 2020), or species' ability to rapidly respond to a change in the environment (Volaire et al 2020). Third, the indirect nature of the commonly measured morphological traits hides the mechanism underlying the relationship between a given trait value and the response of interest (Rosado et al 2013;Brodribb 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant water use strategy determines winners and losers under climate change

Visakorpi

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Pellissier

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Understanding the traits mediating species’ responses to climate change is a cornerstone for predicting future community composition and ecosystem function. Although species’ eco-physiological properties determine their response to environmental change, most trait-based studies focus on a small subset of easily-measured morphological traits as proxies for physiology. This choice may limit our ability to predict the impacts of climate change on species’ demography, and obscure the underlying mechanisms. We conducted a transplantation experiment along a 1000 m Alpine elevation gradient to quantify the degree to which plant demographic responses to climate were predicted by eco-physiological performance versus common morphological traits. Although physiological measurements revealed that warming favored species with a conservative water use strategy, the predictive power of physiological traits did not exceed that of morphological traits. Our results show that while easily-measured morphological traits can successfully predict demographic responses to climate, eco-physiological approaches are needed to understand mechanism.

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What do you mean “functional” in ecology? Patterns versus processes

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 41 publications

References 89 publications

The leaf economic and plant size spectra of European forest understory vegetation

The leaf economic and plant size spectra of European forest understory vegetation

Polyploidy promotes divergent evolution across the leaf economics spectrum and plant edaphic niche in the Dianthus broteri complex

Plant water use strategy determines winners and losers under climate change

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