Plant functional trait response to environmental drivers across European temperate forest understorey communities

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • S. L. Maes
  • M. P. Perring
  • L. Depauw
  • M. Bernhardt-Römermann
  • H. Blondeel
  • G. Brūmelis
  • J. Brunet
  • G. Decocq
  • J. den Ouden
  • S. Govaert
  • R. Hédl
  • T. Heinken
  • S. Heinrichs
  • L. Hertzog
  • B. Jaroszewicz
  • K. Kirby
  • M. Kopecký
  • D. Landuyt
  • F. Máliš
  • T. Vanneste
  • Monika Wulf
  • K. Verheyen

Functional traits respond to environmental drivers, hence evaluating trait-environment relationships across spatial environmental gradients can help to understand how multiple drivers influence plant communities. Global-change drivers such as changes in atmospheric nitrogen deposition occur worldwide, but affect community trait distributions at the local scale, where resources (e.g. light availability) and conditions (e.g. soil pH) also influence plant communities. We investigate how multiple environmental drivers affect community trait responses related to resource acquisition (plant height, specific leaf area (SLA), woodiness, and mycorrhizal status) and regeneration (seed mass, lateral spread) of European temperate deciduous forest understoreys. We sampled understorey communities and derived trait responses across spatial gradients of global-change drivers (temperature, precipitation, nitrogen deposition, and past land use), while integrating in-situ plot measurements on resources and conditions (soil type, Olsen phosphorus (P), Ellenberg soil moisture, light, litter mass, and litter quality). Among the global-change drivers, mean annual temperature strongly influenced traits related to resource acquisition. Higher temperatures were associated with taller understoreys producing leaves with lower SLA, and a higher proportional cover of woody and obligate mycorrhizal (OM) species. Communities in plots with higher Ellenberg soil moisture content had smaller seeds and lower proportional cover of woody and OM species. Finally, plots with thicker litter layers hosted taller understoreys with larger seeds and a higher proportional cover of OM species. Our findings suggest potential community shifts in temperate forest understoreys with global warming, and highlight the importance of local resources and conditions as well as global-change drivers for community trait variation.

Original languageEnglish
JournalPlant Biology
Volume22
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)410-424
Number of pages15
ISSN1435-8603
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.05.2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 German Society for Plant Sciences and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands

    Research areas

  • Global environmental change, ground vegetation, herbaceous layer, plant–soil relations, regeneration, resource acquisition
  • Ecosystems Research

DOI

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