The plant traits that drive ecosystems: Evidence from three continents

Abstract Question: A set of easily-measured (‘soft’) plant traits has been identified as potentially useful predictors of ecosystem functioning in previous studies. Here we aimed to discover whether the screening techniques remain operational in widely contrasted circumstances, to test for the existence of axes of variation in the particular sets of traits, and to test for their links with ‘harder’ traits of proven importance to ecosystem functioning. Location: central-western Argentina, central England, northern upland Iran, and north-eastern Spain. Recurrent patterns of ecological specialization: Through ordination of a matrix of 640 vascular plant taxa by 12 standardized traits, we detected similar patterns of specialization in the four floras. The first PCA axis was identified as an axis of resource capture, usage and release. PCA axis 2 appeared to be a size-related axis. Individual PCA for each country showed that the same traits remained valuable as predictors of resource capture and utilization in...

[1]  Harold A. Mooney,et al.  The Carbon Balance of Plants , 1972 .

[2]  J. P. Grime.  Vegetation classification by reference to strategies , 1974, Nature.

[3]  Roderick Hunt,et al.  Relative growth-rate: its range and adaptive significance in a local flora. , 1975 .

[4]  F. S. Chapin,et al.  The Mineral Nutrition of Wild Plants , 1980 .

[5]  P. Coley,et al.  Effects of leaf age and plant life history patterns on herbivory , 1980, Nature.

[6]  J. P. Grime,et al.  The Plant community as a working mechanism , 1982 .

[7]  P. Grubb.  Plant Populations and Vegetation in Relation to Habitat, Disturbance and Competition: Problems of Generalization , 1985 .

[8]  M. Hill,et al.  Data analysis in community and landscape ecology , 1987 .

[9]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Comparative Plant Ecology , 1988, Springer Netherlands.

[10]  S. McNaughton,et al.  Ecosystem-level patterns of primary productivity and herbivory in terrestrial habitats , 1989, Nature.

[11]  C. Stace,et al.  New Flora Of The British Isles , 1998 .

[12]  D. Herms,et al.  The Dilemma of Plants: To Grow or Defend , 1992, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[13]  S. Hobbie.  Effects of plant species on nutrient cycling. , 1992, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[14]  Ken Thompson,et al.  Seed size and shape predict persistence in soil , 1993 .

[15]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Methods in Comparative Plant Ecology , 1993, Springer Netherlands.

[16]  F. Stuart Chapin,et al.  Evolution of Suites of Traits in Response to Environmental Stress , 1993, The American Naturalist.

[17]  F. Zuloaga.  Catalogo de la familia Poaceae en la Republica Argentina. , 1994 .

[18]  F. Berendse,et al.  Litter decomposability: a neglected component of plant fitness. , 1994 .

[19]  R. Aerts.  The advantages of being evergreen. , 1995, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[20]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Testing predictions of the resistance and resilience of vegetation subjected to extreme events , 1995 .

[21]  Ken Thompson,et al.  Evidence of a causal connection between anti-herbivore defence and the decomposition rate of leaves , 1996 .

[22]  J. Cornelissen,et al.  An experimental comparison of leaf decomposition rates in a wide range of temperate plant species and types , 1996 .

[23]  F. Stuart Chapin,et al.  Plant functional types as predictors of transient responses of arctic vegetation to global change , 1996 .

[24]  K. Thompson,et al.  Integrated screening validates primary axes of specialisation in plants , 1997 .

[25]  S. R. Band,et al.  A comparative study of leaf nutrient concentrations in a regional herbaceous flora. , 1997, The New phytologist.

[26]  P. Vitousek,et al.  The Effects of Plant Composition and Diversity on Ecosystem Processes , 1997 .

[27]  P. Reich,et al.  From tropics to tundra: global convergence in plant functioning. , 1997, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[28]  S. Díaz,et al.  Plant functional types and ecosystem function in relation to global change , 1997 .

[29]  R. Hunt,et al.  Components of relative growth rate and their interrelations in 59 temperate plant species , 1997 .

[30]  H. Mooney,et al.  Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems , 1997, Renewable Energy.

[31]  P. Grubb.  A reassessment of the strategies of plants which cope with shortages of resources , 1998 .

[32]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Benefits of plant diversity to ecosystems: immediate, filter and founder effects , 1998 .

[33]  David A. Wardle,et al.  Can comparative approaches based on plant ecophysiological traits predict the nature of biotic interactions and individual plant species effects in ecosystems? , 1998 .

[34]  Roderick Hunt,et al.  Allocating C-S-R plant functional types : a soft approach to a hard problem , 1999 .

[35]  M. Roderick,et al.  Challenging Theophrastus: A common core list of plant traits for functional ecology , 1999 .

[36]  F. O. Zuloaga,et al.  Catálogo de las plantas vasculares de la República Argentina II , 1999 .

[37]  D. Soltis,et al.  Angiosperm phylogeny inferred from multiple genes as a tool for comparative biology , 1999, Nature.

[38]  Pereira,et al.  Plant diversity and productivity experiments in european grasslands , 1999, Science.

[39]  Mark Westoby,et al.  EVOLUTIONARY DIVERGENCES IN LEAF STRUCTURE AND CHEMISTRY, COMPARING RAINFALL AND SOIL NUTRIENT GRADIENTS , 1999 .

[40]  F. S. Chapin,et al.  The Mineral Nutrition of Wild Plants Revisited: A Re-evaluation of Processes and Patterns , 1999 .

[41]  Sandra Díaz,et al.  Leaf structure and defence control litter decomposition rate across species and life forms in regional floras on two continents , 1999 .

[42]  F. Chapin,et al.  Consequences of changing biodiversity , 2000, Nature.

[43]  C. Körner,et al.  Above-ground resource use increases with plant species richness in experimental grassland ecosystems , 2000 .

[44]  D. Ackerly.  TAXON SAMPLING, CORRELATED EVOLUTION, AND INDEPENDENT CONTRASTS , 2000, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[45]  David Tilman,et al.  The relationships among root and leaf traits of 76 grassland species and relative abundance along fertility and disturbance gradients , 2001 .

[46]  P. Reich,et al.  Diversity and Productivity in a Long-Term Grassland Experiment , 2001, Science.

[47]  J. Roy,et al.  Separating the chance effect from other diversity effects in the functioning of plant communities , 2001 .

[48]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Current Knowledge and Future Challenges , 2001, Science.

[49]  M. Westoby,et al.  ECOLOGICAL STRATEGIES : Some Leading Dimensions of Variation Between Species , 2002 .

[50]  R. Cowling,et al.  High leaf mass per area of related species assemblages may reflect low rainfall and carbon isotope discrimination rather than low phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations , 2002 .

[51]  M. Westoby,et al.  Leaves at low versus high rainfall: coordination of structure, lifespan and physiology. , 2002, The New phytologist.

[52]  S. Lavorel,et al.  Predicting changes in community composition and ecosystem functioning from plant traits: revisiting the Holy Grail , 2002 .

[53]  D. Read,et al.  Specialized cheating of the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis by an epiparasitic liverwort , 2003, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[54]  S. Lavorel,et al.  Mechanisms underlying the impacts of exotic plant invasions , 2003, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[55]  Sandra Díaz,et al.  Leaf traits and herbivore selection in the field and in cafeteria experiments , 2003 .

[56]  P. Reich,et al.  A handbook of protocols for standardised and easy measurement of plant functional traits worldwide , 2003 .

[57]  D. Roy,et al.  Host plants and butterfly biology. Do host‐plant strategies drive butterfly status? , 2004 .

[58]  Hendrik Poorter,et al.  Inherent Variation in Growth Rate Between Higher Plants: A Search for Physiological Causes and Ecological Consequences , 1992 .

[59]  Mark Westoby,et al.  A leaf-height-seed (LHS) plant ecology strategy scheme , 1998, Plant and Soil.

[60]  David D. Ackerly,et al.  FUNCTIONAL STRATEGIES OF CHAPARRAL SHRUBS IN RELATION TO SEASONAL WATER DEFICIT AND DISTURBANCE , 2004 .

[61]  Sandra Díaz,et al.  Chemistry and toughness predict leaf litter decomposition rates over a wide spectrum of functional types and taxa in central Argentina , 2004, Plant and Soil.

[62]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Plant Strategies, Vegetation Processes, and Ecosystem Properties , 2006 .