TY - JOUR

T1 - Combining multiple investigative approaches to unravel functional responses to global change in the understorey of temperate forests

AU - Landuyt, Dries

AU - Perring, Michael P.

AU - Blondeel, Haben

AU - De Lombaerde, Emiel

AU - Depauw, Leen

AU - Lorer, Eline

AU - Maes, Sybryn L.

AU - Baeten, Lander

AU - Bergès, Laurent

AU - Bernhardt-Römermann, Markus

AU - Brūmelis, Guntis

AU - Brunet, Jörg

AU - Chudomelová, Markéta

AU - Czerepko, Janusz

AU - Decocq, Guillaume

AU - den Ouden, Jan

AU - De Frenne, Pieter

AU - Dirnböck, Thomas

AU - Durak, Tomasz

AU - Fichtner, Andreas

AU - Gawryś, Radosław

AU - Härdtle, Werner

AU - Hédl, Radim

AU - Heinrichs, Steffi

AU - Heinken, Thilo

AU - Jaroszewicz, Bogdan

AU - Kirby, Keith

AU - Kopecký, Martin

AU - Máliš, František

AU - Macek, Martin

AU - Mitchell, Fraser J.G.

AU - Naaf, Tobias

AU - Petřík, Petr

AU - Reczynska, Kamila

AU - Schmidt, Wolfgang

AU - Standovár, Tibor

AU - Swierkosz, Krzysztof

AU - Smart, Simon M.

AU - Van Calster, Hans

AU - Vild, Ondrej

AU - Waller, Donald M.

AU - Wulf, Monika

AU - Verheyen, Kris

N1 - All field data collection campaigns (coordinated by HB, SLM, LD, MPP, and KV), lab analyses (performed by Greet De bruyn and Luc Willems) and preliminary statistical analyses (coordinated by MPP and KV) have been funded by ERC consolidator project PASTFORWARD (614839, funding obtained by KV). Further statistical analyses have been performed within the frame of a postdoctoral fellowship of the Flemish Research Foundation FWO (funding obtained by DL, 1200321N). LD, SLM, and EL are currently being funded by two FWO postdoctoral fellowships (1221523N, 12ZZV21N) and a FWO research project (G078921N), respectively. EDL is being funded by a BOF postdoctoral fellowship. FM was supported by Slovak Research and Development Agency grant APVV-19-0319. MK, MM, MC, PP, OV, and RH are supported by long-term research development project No. RVO 67985939 of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the grant 21-11487S by the Czech Science Foundation, and postdoctoral fellowship L200052302 (to MC). TD is supported by EU Horizon 2020 INFRAIA project eLTER-PLUS (871128). Historical vegetation surveys in Białowieża Forest were funded by the Directorate-General of the State Forests in Poland (grant no. BLP-370).

PY - 2024/1

Y1 - 2024/1

N2 - Plant communities are being exposed to changing environmental conditions all around the globe, leading to alterations in plant diversity, community composition, and ecosystem functioning. For herbaceous understorey communities in temperate forests, responses to global change are postulated to be complex, due to the presence of a tree layer that modulates understorey responses to external pressures such as climate change and changes in atmospheric nitrogen deposition rates. Multiple investigative approaches have been put forward as tools to detect, quantify and predict understorey responses to these global-change drivers, including, among others, distributed resurvey studies and manipulative experiments. These investigative approaches are generally designed and reported upon in isolation, while integration across investigative approaches is rarely considered. In this study, we integrate three investigative approaches (two complementary resurvey approaches and one experimental approach) to investigate how climate warming and changes in nitrogen deposition affect the functional composition of the understorey and how functional responses in the understorey are modulated by canopy disturbance, that is, changes in overstorey canopy openness over time. Our resurvey data reveal that most changes in understorey functional characteristics represent responses to changes in canopy openness with shifts in macroclimate temperature and aerial nitrogen deposition playing secondary roles. Contrary to expectations, we found little evidence that these drivers interact. In addition, experimental findings deviated from the observational findings, suggesting that the forces driving understorey change at the regional scale differ from those driving change at the forest floor (i.e., the experimental treatments). Our study demonstrates that different approaches need to be integrated to acquire a full picture of how understorey communities respond to global change.

AB - Plant communities are being exposed to changing environmental conditions all around the globe, leading to alterations in plant diversity, community composition, and ecosystem functioning. For herbaceous understorey communities in temperate forests, responses to global change are postulated to be complex, due to the presence of a tree layer that modulates understorey responses to external pressures such as climate change and changes in atmospheric nitrogen deposition rates. Multiple investigative approaches have been put forward as tools to detect, quantify and predict understorey responses to these global-change drivers, including, among others, distributed resurvey studies and manipulative experiments. These investigative approaches are generally designed and reported upon in isolation, while integration across investigative approaches is rarely considered. In this study, we integrate three investigative approaches (two complementary resurvey approaches and one experimental approach) to investigate how climate warming and changes in nitrogen deposition affect the functional composition of the understorey and how functional responses in the understorey are modulated by canopy disturbance, that is, changes in overstorey canopy openness over time. Our resurvey data reveal that most changes in understorey functional characteristics represent responses to changes in canopy openness with shifts in macroclimate temperature and aerial nitrogen deposition playing secondary roles. Contrary to expectations, we found little evidence that these drivers interact. In addition, experimental findings deviated from the observational findings, suggesting that the forces driving understorey change at the regional scale differ from those driving change at the forest floor (i.e., the experimental treatments). Our study demonstrates that different approaches need to be integrated to acquire a full picture of how understorey communities respond to global change.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - climate change

KW - forest management

KW - forestREplot

KW - herbaceous layer

KW - mesocosm experiment

KW - nitrogen deposition

KW - plant height

KW - resurvey study

KW - SLA

KW - climate change

KW - forest management

KW - forestREplot

KW - herbaceous layer

KW - mesocosm experiment

KW - nitrogen deposition

KW - plant height

KW - resurvey study

KW - SLA

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179369529&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/gcb.17086

DO - 10.1111/gcb.17086

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 38273496

VL - 30

JO - Global Change Biology

JF - Global Change Biology

SN - 1354-1013

IS - 1

M1 - e17086

ER -