Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe

Stephan Kambach (), Francesco Maria Sabatini, Fabio Attorre, Idoia Biurrun, Gerhard Boenisch, Gianmaria Bonari, Andraž Čarni, Maria Laura Carranza, Alessandro Chiarucci, Milan Chytrý, Jürgen Dengler, Emmanuel Garbolino, Valentin Golub, Behlül Güler, Ute Jandt, Jan Jansen, Anni Jašková, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Jens Kattge, Ilona Knollová, Gabriele Midolo, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Remigiusz Pielech, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Solvita Rūsiņa, Jozef Šibík, Zvjezdana Stančić, Angela Stanisci, Jens-Christian Svenning, Sergey Yamalov, Niklaus E. Zimmermann and Helge Bruelheide
Additional contact information
Stephan Kambach: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Francesco Maria Sabatini: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Fabio Attorre: Sapienza University of Rome
Idoia Biurrun: University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
Gerhard Boenisch: Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
Gianmaria Bonari: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Andraž Čarni: Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology, ZRC-SAZU
Maria Laura Carranza: University of Molise
Alessandro Chiarucci: Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna
Milan Chytrý: Masaryk University
Jürgen Dengler: Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)
Emmanuel Garbolino: Climpact Data Science (CDS), Nova Sophia – Regus Nova
Valentin Golub: Russian Academy of Sciences
Behlül Güler: Dokuz Eylul University
Ute Jandt: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Jan Jansen: Radboud University
Anni Jašková: Masaryk University
Borja Jiménez-Alfaro: University of Oviedo
Dirk Nikolaus Karger: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Jens Kattge: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Ilona Knollová: Masaryk University
Gabriele Midolo: Masaryk University
Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund: Aarhus University
Remigiusz Pielech: University of Agriculture in Krakow
Valerijus Rašomavičius: Institute of Botany, Nature Research Centre
Solvita Rūsiņa: University of Latvia
Jozef Šibík: Institute of Botany, Plant Science and Biodiversity Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences
Zvjezdana Stančić: University of Zagreb
Angela Stanisci: University of Molise
Jens-Christian Svenning: Aarhus University
Sergey Yamalov: Russian Academy of Sciences
Niklaus E. Zimmermann: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Helge Bruelheide: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Ecological theory predicts close relationships between macroclimate and functional traits. Yet, global climatic gradients correlate only weakly with the trait composition of local plant communities, suggesting that important factors have been ignored. Here, we investigate the consistency of climate-trait relationships for plant communities in European habitats. Assuming that local factors are better accounted for in more narrowly defined habitats, we assigned > 300,000 vegetation plots to hierarchically classified habitats and modelled the effects of climate on the community-weighted means of four key functional traits using generalized additive models. We found that the predictive power of climate increased from broadly to narrowly defined habitats for specific leaf area and root length, but not for plant height and seed mass. Although macroclimate generally predicted the distribution of all traits, its effects varied, with habitat-specificity increasing toward more narrowly defined habitats. We conclude that macroclimate is an important determinant of terrestrial plant communities, but future predictions of climatic effects must consider how habitats are defined.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36240-6

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