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Plant functional trait change across a warming tundra biome

Bjorkman, Anne D. ; Myers-Smith, Isla H. ; Elmendorf, Sarah C. ; Normand, Signe ; Rüger, Nadja ; Beck, Pieter S.A. ; Blach-Overgaard, Anne ; Blok, Daan LU ; Cornelissen, J. Hans C. and Forbes, Bruce C. , et al. (2018) In Nature 562(7725). p.57-62
Abstract

The tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature–trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially... (More)

The tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature–trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially important influence of changes in water availability on future trait shifts in tundra plant communities. Community height increased with warming across all sites over the past three decades, but other traits lagged far behind predicted rates of change. Our findings highlight the challenge of using space-for-time substitution to predict the functional consequences of future warming and suggest that functions that are tied closely to plant height will experience the most rapid change. They also reveal the strength with which environmental factors shape biotic communities at the coldest extremes of the planet and will help to improve projections of functional changes in tundra ecosystems with climate warming.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature
volume
562
issue
7725
pages
6 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85054332128
  • pmid:30258229
ISSN
0028-0836
DOI
10.1038/s41586-018-0563-7
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
955553b8-d0da-4b02-be26-c8b2d53cff1f
date added to LUP
2018-10-16 08:35:10
date last changed
2024-03-18 16:21:17
@article{955553b8-d0da-4b02-be26-c8b2d53cff1f,
  abstract     = {{<p>The tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature–trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially important influence of changes in water availability on future trait shifts in tundra plant communities. Community height increased with warming across all sites over the past three decades, but other traits lagged far behind predicted rates of change. Our findings highlight the challenge of using space-for-time substitution to predict the functional consequences of future warming and suggest that functions that are tied closely to plant height will experience the most rapid change. They also reveal the strength with which environmental factors shape biotic communities at the coldest extremes of the planet and will help to improve projections of functional changes in tundra ecosystems with climate warming.</p>}},
  author       = {{Bjorkman, Anne D. and Myers-Smith, Isla H. and Elmendorf, Sarah C. and Normand, Signe and Rüger, Nadja and Beck, Pieter S.A. and Blach-Overgaard, Anne and Blok, Daan and Cornelissen, J. Hans C. and Forbes, Bruce C. and Georges, Damien and Goetz, Scott J. and Guay, Kevin C. and Henry, Gregory H.R. and HilleRisLambers, Janneke and Hollister, Robert D. and Karger, Dirk N. and Kattge, Jens and Manning, Peter and Prevéy, Janet S. and Rixen, Christian and Schaepman-Strub, Gabriela and Thomas, Haydn J.D. and Vellend, Mark and Wilmking, Martin and Wipf, Sonja and Carbognani, Michele and Hermanutz, Luise and Lévesque, Esther and Molau, Ulf and Petraglia, Alessandro and Soudzilovskaia, Nadejda A. and Spasojevic, Marko J. and Tomaselli, Marcello and Vowles, Tage and Alatalo, Juha M. and Alexander, Heather D. and Anadon-Rosell, Alba and Angers-Blondin, Sandra and Beest, Mariska te and Berner, Logan and Björk, Robert G. and Buchwal, Agata and Buras, Allan and Christie, Katherine and Cooper, Elisabeth J. and Dullinger, Stefan and Elberling, Bo and Eskelinen, Anu and Frei, Esther R. and Grau, Oriol and Grogan, Paul and Hallinger, Martin and Harper, Karen A. and Heijmans, Monique M.P.D. and Hudson, James and Hülber, Karl and Iturrate-Garcia, Maitane and Iversen, Colleen M. and Jaroszynska, Francesca and Johnstone, Jill F. and Jørgensen, Rasmus Halfdan and Kaarlejärvi, Elina and Klady, Rebecca and Kuleza, Sara and Kulonen, Aino and Lamarque, Laurent J. and Lantz, Trevor and Little, Chelsea J. and Speed, James D.M. and Michelsen, Anders and Milbau, Ann and Nabe-Nielsen, Jacob and Nielsen, Sigrid Schøler and Ninot, Josep M. and Oberbauer, Steven F. and Olofsson, Johan and Onipchenko, Vladimir G. and Rumpf, Sabine B. and Semenchuk, Philipp and Shetti, Rohan and Collier, Laura Siegwart and Street, Lorna E. and Suding, Katharine N. and Tape, Ken D. and Trant, Andrew and Treier, Urs A. and Tremblay, Jean Pierre and Tremblay, Maxime and Venn, Susanna and Weijers, Stef and Zamin, Tara and Boulanger-Lapointe, Noémie and Gould, William A. and Hik, David S. and Hofgaard, Annika and Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg S. and Jorgenson, Janet and Klein, Julia and Magnusson, Borgthor and Tweedie, Craig and Wookey, Philip A. and Bahn, Michael and Blonder, Benjamin and van Bodegom, Peter M. and Bond-Lamberty, Benjamin and Campetella, Giandiego and Cerabolini, Bruno E.L. and Chapin, F. Stuart and Cornwell, William K. and Craine, Joseph and Dainese, Matteo and de Vries, Franciska T. and Díaz, Sandra and Enquist, Brian J. and Green, Walton and Milla, Ruben and Niinemets, Ülo and Onoda, Yusuke and Ordoñez, Jenny C. and Ozinga, Wim A. and Penuelas, Josep and Poorter, Hendrik and Poschlod, Peter and Reich, Peter B. and Sandel, Brody and Schamp, Brandon and Sheremetev, Serge and Weiher, Evan}},
  issn         = {{0028-0836}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{7725}},
  pages        = {{57--62}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature}},
  title        = {{Plant functional trait change across a warming tundra biome}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0563-7}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41586-018-0563-7}},
  volume       = {{562}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}