Plant traits alone are poor predictors of ecosystem properties and long-term ecosystem functioning
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: Nature Ecology & Evolution, Jahrgang 4, Nr. 12, 12.2020, S. 1602-1611.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Plant traits alone are poor predictors of ecosystem properties and long-term ecosystem functioning
AU - van der Plas, Fons
AU - Schröder-Georgi, Thomas
AU - Weigelt, Alexandra
AU - Barry, Kathryn
AU - Meyer, Sebastian
AU - Alzate, Adriana
AU - Barnard, Romain L.
AU - Buchmann, Nina
AU - de Kroon, Hans
AU - Ebeling, Anne
AU - Eisenhauer, Nico
AU - Engels, Christof
AU - Fischer, Markus
AU - Gleixner, Gerd
AU - Hildebrandt, Anke
AU - Koller-France, Eva
AU - Leimer, Sophia
AU - Milcu, Alexandru
AU - Mommer, Liesje
AU - Niklaus, Pascal A.
AU - Oelmann, Yvonne
AU - Roscher, Christiane
AU - Scherber, Christoph
AU - Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael
AU - Scheu, Stefan
AU - Schmid, Bernhard
AU - Schulze, Ernst Detlef
AU - Temperton, Vicky
AU - Tscharntke, Teja
AU - Voigt, Winfried
AU - Weisser, Wolfgang
AU - Wilcke, Wolfgang
AU - Wirth, Christian
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Earth is home to over 350,000 vascular plant species that differ in their traits in innumerable ways. A key challenge is to predict how natural or anthropogenically driven changes in the identity, abundance and diversity of co-occurring plant species drive important ecosystem-level properties such as biomass production or carbon storage. Here, we analyse the extent to which 42 different ecosystem properties can be predicted by 41 plant traits in 78 experimentally manipulated grassland plots over 10 years. Despite the unprecedented number of traits analysed, the average percentage of variation in ecosystem properties jointly explained was only moderate (32.6%) within individual years, and even much lower (12.7%) across years. Most other studies linking ecosystem properties to plant traits analysed no more than six traits and, when including only six traits in our analysis, the average percentage of variation explained in across-year levels of ecosystem properties dropped to 4.8%. Furthermore, we found on average only 12.2% overlap in significant predictors among ecosystem properties, indicating that a small set of key traits able to explain multiple ecosystem properties does not exist. Our results therefore suggest that there are specific limits to the extent to which traits per se can predict the long-term functional consequences of biodiversity change, so that data on additional drivers, such as interacting abiotic factors, may be required to improve predictions of ecosystem property levels.
AB - Earth is home to over 350,000 vascular plant species that differ in their traits in innumerable ways. A key challenge is to predict how natural or anthropogenically driven changes in the identity, abundance and diversity of co-occurring plant species drive important ecosystem-level properties such as biomass production or carbon storage. Here, we analyse the extent to which 42 different ecosystem properties can be predicted by 41 plant traits in 78 experimentally manipulated grassland plots over 10 years. Despite the unprecedented number of traits analysed, the average percentage of variation in ecosystem properties jointly explained was only moderate (32.6%) within individual years, and even much lower (12.7%) across years. Most other studies linking ecosystem properties to plant traits analysed no more than six traits and, when including only six traits in our analysis, the average percentage of variation explained in across-year levels of ecosystem properties dropped to 4.8%. Furthermore, we found on average only 12.2% overlap in significant predictors among ecosystem properties, indicating that a small set of key traits able to explain multiple ecosystem properties does not exist. Our results therefore suggest that there are specific limits to the extent to which traits per se can predict the long-term functional consequences of biodiversity change, so that data on additional drivers, such as interacting abiotic factors, may be required to improve predictions of ecosystem property levels.
KW - Ecosystems Research
KW - tree species-diversity
KW - litter decomposition
KW - phylogenetic diversity
KW - subtropical forest
KW - carbon storage
KW - land-use
KW - community composition
KW - aboveground biomass
KW - global metaanalysis
KW - taxonomic diversity
KW - biodiversity
KW - community ecology
KW - ecosystem ecology
KW - grassland ecology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092089670&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41559-020-01316-9
DO - 10.1038/s41559-020-01316-9
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 33020598
AN - SCOPUS:85092089670
VL - 4
SP - 1602
EP - 1611
JO - Nature Ecology & Evolution
JF - Nature Ecology & Evolution
SN - 2397-334X
IS - 12
ER -