From atoms to ecosystems
The elemental composition of plants (the elementome) is a reliable indicator of their functional traits and the ecological strategies that they follow, and thus represents a good predictor of how ecosystems work. Biodiversity and, especially, functional diversity are also widely recognized as import...
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:257160 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/257160 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/nph.17864 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Biogeochemistry Competition Ecological niche Functional traits Nutrients Stoichiometry |
| Resumo: | The elemental composition of plants (the elementome) is a reliable indicator of their functional traits and the ecological strategies that they follow, and thus represents a good predictor of how ecosystems work. Biodiversity and, especially, functional diversity are also widely recognized as important drivers of ecosystem functioning, mainly because of niche partitioning amongst different species. Here, I review evidence indicating that plant elementomes relate to their ecological niches and how plant elemental concentrations may shift in response to abiotic and biotic drivers. I propose the use of ecosystem elementome diversity as a universal metric to compare ecosystems and investigate diversity-ecosystem functioning relationships. Future research using this promising novel approach will bring together elementomes, diversity, and ecosystem functioning. |
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