TY - JOUR
T1 - Global gradients in intraspecific variation in vegetative and floral traits are partially associated with climate and species richness
AU - Kuppler, Jonas
AU - Albert, Cécile H.
AU - Ames, Gregory M.
AU - Armbruster, William Scott
AU - Boenisch, Gerhard
AU - Boucher, Florian C.
AU - Campbell, Diane R.
AU - Carneiro, Liedson T.
AU - Chacón-Madrigal, Eduardo
AU - Enquist, Brian J.
AU - Fonseca, Carlos R.
AU - Gómez, José M.
AU - Guisan, Antoine
AU - Higuchi, Pedro
AU - Karger, Dirk N.
AU - Kattge, Jens
AU - Kleyer, Michael
AU - Kraft, Nathan J.B.
AU - Larue-Kontić, Anne Amélie C.
AU - Lázaro, Amparo
AU - Lechleitner, Martin
AU - Loughnan, Deirdre
AU - Minden, Vanessa
AU - Niinemets, Ülo
AU - Overbeck, Gerhard E.
AU - Parachnowitsch, Amy L.
AU - Perfectti, Francisco
AU - Pillar, Valério D.
AU - Schellenberger Costa, David
AU - Sletvold, Nina
AU - Stang, Martina
AU - Alves-dos-Santos, Isabel
AU - Streit, Helena
AU - Wright, Justin
AU - Zych, Marcin
AU - Junker, Robert R.
N1 - Funding Information:
The study would not have been possible without the work of the TRY initiative on plant traits ( http://www.try‐db.org ) and the BIEN database ( http://bien.nceas.ucsb.edu/bien/ ). We thank all the BIEN and TRY contributors. Furthermore, we thank Benjamin Blonder, Melanie Harze, Ruben Milla, Clara Pladevall, Quentin Read, Marko Spasojevic, Alexia Totte, Evan R. Weiher, Ian Wright and Gerhard W. Zotz for providing additional information for their datasets. Additionally, we thank Franziska Schrodt and anonymous reviewers for constructive and thoughtful suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. Open Access funding was provided by Ulm University under the DEAL‐agreement.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Global Ecology and Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2020/6/1
Y1 - 2020/6/1
N2 - Aim: Intraspecific trait variation (ITV) within natural plant communities can be large, influencing local ecological processes and dynamics. Here, we shed light on how ITV in vegetative and floral traits responds to large-scale abiotic and biotic gradients (i.e., climate and species richness). Specifically, we tested whether associations of ITV with temperature, precipitation and species richness were consistent with any of four hypotheses relating to stress tolerance and competition. Furthermore, we estimated the degree of correlation between ITV in vegetative and floral traits and how they vary along the gradients. Location: Global. Time period: 1975–2016. Major taxa studied: Herbaceous and woody plants. Methods: We compiled a dataset of 18,401 measurements of the absolute extent of ITV (measured as the coefficient of variation) in nine vegetative and seven floral traits from 2,822 herbaceous and woody species at 2,372 locations. Results: Large-scale associations between ITV and climate were trait specific and more prominent for vegetative traits, especially leaf morphology, than for floral traits. The ITV showed pronounced associations with climate, with lower ITV values in colder areas and higher values in drier areas. The associations of ITV with species richness were inconsistent across traits. Species-specific associations across gradients were often idiosyncratic, and covariation in ITV was weaker between vegetative and floral traits than within the two trait groups. Main conclusions: Our results show that, depending on the traits considered, ITV either increased or decreased with climate stress and species richness, suggesting that both factors can constrain or enhance ITV, which might foster plant-population persistence in stressful conditions. Given the species-specific responses and covariation in ITV, associations can be hard to predict for traits and species not yet studied. We conclude that consideration of ITV can improve our understanding of how plants cope with stressful conditions and environmental change across spatial and biological scales.
AB - Aim: Intraspecific trait variation (ITV) within natural plant communities can be large, influencing local ecological processes and dynamics. Here, we shed light on how ITV in vegetative and floral traits responds to large-scale abiotic and biotic gradients (i.e., climate and species richness). Specifically, we tested whether associations of ITV with temperature, precipitation and species richness were consistent with any of four hypotheses relating to stress tolerance and competition. Furthermore, we estimated the degree of correlation between ITV in vegetative and floral traits and how they vary along the gradients. Location: Global. Time period: 1975–2016. Major taxa studied: Herbaceous and woody plants. Methods: We compiled a dataset of 18,401 measurements of the absolute extent of ITV (measured as the coefficient of variation) in nine vegetative and seven floral traits from 2,822 herbaceous and woody species at 2,372 locations. Results: Large-scale associations between ITV and climate were trait specific and more prominent for vegetative traits, especially leaf morphology, than for floral traits. The ITV showed pronounced associations with climate, with lower ITV values in colder areas and higher values in drier areas. The associations of ITV with species richness were inconsistent across traits. Species-specific associations across gradients were often idiosyncratic, and covariation in ITV was weaker between vegetative and floral traits than within the two trait groups. Main conclusions: Our results show that, depending on the traits considered, ITV either increased or decreased with climate stress and species richness, suggesting that both factors can constrain or enhance ITV, which might foster plant-population persistence in stressful conditions. Given the species-specific responses and covariation in ITV, associations can be hard to predict for traits and species not yet studied. We conclude that consideration of ITV can improve our understanding of how plants cope with stressful conditions and environmental change across spatial and biological scales.
KW - community ecology
KW - flower trait
KW - functional diversity
KW - functional trait
KW - leaf trait
KW - macroecology
KW - precipitation gradient
KW - temperature gradient
KW - within-species variation
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U2 - 10.1111/geb.13077
DO - 10.1111/geb.13077
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85081262010
SN - 1466-822X
VL - 29
SP - 992
EP - 1007
JO - Global Ecology and Biogeography
JF - Global Ecology and Biogeography
IS - 6
ER -