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

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Anke Haarmann

Publications

  1. Workshop: 20 years health promotion research in and on settings
  2. Psychological distance modulates goal-based versus movement-based imitation
  3. Intentionalisten vs. Strukturalisten
  4. Biodegradability of some antibiotics, elimination of the genotoxicity and affection of wastewater bacteria in a simple test
  5. Die Erinnerung im Gepäck
  6. One-third Codetermination at Company Supervisory Boards and Firm Performance in German Manufacturing Industries
  7. Effectiveness of One Videoconference-Based Exposure and Response Prevention Session at Home in Adjunction to Inpatient Treatment in Persons With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  8. Flexible and Adaptable Restoration
  9. Sowing different mixtures in dry acidic grassland produced priority effects of varying strength
  10. Robert Walser lieben
  11. Consequence evaluations and moral concerns about climate change
  12. Logistik-Controlling
  13. Tourismusräume
  14. Including software aspects in green IT
  15. Influence of Torsion on Precipitation and Hardening Effects during Aging of an Extruded AZ91 Alloy
  16. Timing, fragmentation of work and income inequality
  17. Digital health literacy and information-seeking on the internet in relation to COVID-19 among university students in Greece
  18. The Psychological Study of Positive Behavior Across Group Boundaries
  19. Starker Bär und schneller Hirsch
  20. Theorizing path dependence
  21. Tree diversity promotes generalist herbivore community patterns in a young subtropical forest experiment
  22. On the Power of an Open Scientific Approach to Actions
  23. Reading the 2011 Riots
  24. Teacher collaboration, inclusive education and differentiated instruction
  25. Grassroots Innovations for Inclusive Development
  26. Diffusion of environmental management accounting for cleaner production
  27. The programme on ecosystem change and society (PECS) – a decade of deepening social-ecological research through a place-based focus
  28. Differences in isoprenoid-mediated energy dissipation pathways between coastal and interior Douglas-fir seedlings in response to drought
  29. Soziologische Aspekte des Spiels
  30. The shadow of the family
  31. Results from the project 'Acceptance of CO2 capture and storage
  32. Grassroots relational approaches to agricultural transformation in Latin America
  33. National Parks, buffer zones and surrounding lands
  34. Schuldnerhaftung für Roboterversagen
  35. Public perceptions of how to reduce carbon footprints of consumer food choices
  36. Measurement approaches for inigrated reporting adoption and quality
  37. Führen mit Hilfe IT-gestützter Workflows
  38. From the laboratory to the field
  39. A leverage point perspective on serious games for sustainability transformation
  40. LEGU-MED
  41. 2D QSAR of PPARγ agonist binding and transactivation.
  42. In Situ Synchrotron Radiation Study of the Tension–Compression Asymmetry in an Extruded Mg–2Y–1Zn–1Mn Alloy
  43. How business reporting changed during the financial crisis
  44. Pitfalls and potential of institutional change