The influence of taxonomy and environment on leaf trait variation along tropical abiotic gradients

Deconstructing functional trait variation and co-variation across a wide range of environmental conditions is necessary to increase the mechanistic understanding of community assembly processes and improve current parameterization of dynamic vegetation models. Here, we present a study that deconstru...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Oliveras, Imma, Bentley, Lisa, Fyllas, Nikolaos M., Gvozdevaite, Agne, Shenkin, Alexander Frederick, Peprah, Theresa, Morandi, Paulo, Peixoto, Karine Silva, Boakye, Mickey, Adu-Bredu, Stephen, Schwantes Marimon, Beatriz, Marimon Junior, Ben Hur, Salinas, Norma, Martin, Roberta, Asner, Gregory, Díaz, Sandra Myrna, Enquist, Brian J., Malhi, Yadvinder
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/138091
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/138091
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:ENVIRONMENTAL FILTERING
INTERSPECIFIC
INTRASPECIFIC
TRAIT COVARIATION
VARIANCE PARTITIONING
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:Deconstructing functional trait variation and co-variation across a wide range of environmental conditions is necessary to increase the mechanistic understanding of community assembly processes and improve current parameterization of dynamic vegetation models. Here, we present a study that deconstructs leaf trait variation and co-variation into within-species, taxonomic-, and plot-environment components along three tropical environmental gradients in Peru, Brazil, and Ghana. To do so, we measured photosynthetic, chemical, and structural leaf traits using a standardized sampling protocol for more than 1,000 individuals belonging to 367 species. Variation associated with the taxonomic component (species + genus + family) for most traits was relatively consistent across environmental gradients, but within-species variation and plot-environment variation was strongly dependent on the environmental gradient. Trait-trait co-variation was strongly linked to the environmental gradient where traits were measured, although some traits had consistent co-variation components irrespective of gradient. Our results demonstrate that filtering along these tropical gradients is mostly expressed through trait taxonomic variation, but that trait co-variation is strongly dependent on the local environment, and thus global trait co-variation relationships might not always apply at smaller scales and may quickly change under future climate scenarios.

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