TY - JOUR

T1 - Intraspecific trait variation patterns along a precipitation gradient in Mongolian rangelands

AU - Lang, Birgit

AU - Geiger, Anna

AU - Oyunbileg, Munkhzuul

AU - Ahlborn, Julian

AU - von Wehrden, Henrik

AU - Wesche, Karsten

AU - Oyuntsetseg, Batlai

AU - Römermann, Christine

N1 - The authors would like to thank Ganbud Yeruultkhuyag for his persistent commitment as a field assistant. We are grateful to all cooperating scientists who helped with the coordination and organization of the field work. We also thank Janin Naumann for practical assistance and technical support as well as Lauren Leib and Elke Kirsten. We would also like to thank Hermann Heilmeier and two anonymous reviewers for providing helpful suggestions to improve previous versions of this article. This work was funded by the German science foundation DFG ( RO 3842/3-1 , WE 2601/8-1 , WE 5297/3-1 ).

PY - 2019/5

Y1 - 2019/5

N2 - Moisture availability is the main limiting factor of plant growth and biomass production in arid and semi-arid grasslands. The question whether plant responses to changing precipitation are species-specific, or change over entire plant communities is still controversial. Our study focussed on intraspecific changes in the plant traits canopy height, plant width, specific leaf area, chlorophyll fluorescence, performance index, and individual biomass of three congeneric species pairs with changing precipitation in Mongolian rangelands, covering a gradient from the desert to the forest steppes. Using this trait data set, we focussed on three questions: (i) Is the replacement of congeneric species along an environmental gradient also reflected in their trait values? (ii) Can intraspecific trait variation patterns be derived from patterns in species abundances, i.e., are trait values optimal where species are most abundant? (iii) Is the within-population trait variability lowest in populations growing under very dry conditions, i.e., under highest environmental stress, caused by stronger filtering? We tested the responses of the six traits to changing precipitation according to species’ identity and abundance. We found unimodal relationships between most of the species’ traits and precipitation, and strong associations between species abundances and trait values, but not for all investigated species. Trait variability did not significantly differ between populations from different positions along the precipitation gradient. Our results highlight that species show multiple or even opposite trait responses along the precipitation gradient. It thus remains challenging to predict how plant distributions will shift under changing environmental conditions based on their trait composition.

AB - Moisture availability is the main limiting factor of plant growth and biomass production in arid and semi-arid grasslands. The question whether plant responses to changing precipitation are species-specific, or change over entire plant communities is still controversial. Our study focussed on intraspecific changes in the plant traits canopy height, plant width, specific leaf area, chlorophyll fluorescence, performance index, and individual biomass of three congeneric species pairs with changing precipitation in Mongolian rangelands, covering a gradient from the desert to the forest steppes. Using this trait data set, we focussed on three questions: (i) Is the replacement of congeneric species along an environmental gradient also reflected in their trait values? (ii) Can intraspecific trait variation patterns be derived from patterns in species abundances, i.e., are trait values optimal where species are most abundant? (iii) Is the within-population trait variability lowest in populations growing under very dry conditions, i.e., under highest environmental stress, caused by stronger filtering? We tested the responses of the six traits to changing precipitation according to species’ identity and abundance. We found unimodal relationships between most of the species’ traits and precipitation, and strong associations between species abundances and trait values, but not for all investigated species. Trait variability did not significantly differ between populations from different positions along the precipitation gradient. Our results highlight that species show multiple or even opposite trait responses along the precipitation gradient. It thus remains challenging to predict how plant distributions will shift under changing environmental conditions based on their trait composition.

KW - Artemisia

KW - Caragana

KW - Chlorophyll fluorescence

KW - Intraspecific trait variability

KW - Specific leaf area

KW - Stipa

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85056610137&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.flora.2018.11.008

DO - 10.1016/j.flora.2018.11.008

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85056610137

VL - 254

SP - 135

EP - 146

JO - Flora

JF - Flora

SN - 0367-2530

ER -