Title: Robustness of trait connections across environmental gradients and growth forms

Abstract

Abstract Aim Plant trait databases often contain traits that are correlated, but for whom direct (undirected statistical dependency) and indirect (mediated by other traits) connections may be confounded. The confounding of correlation and connection hinders our understanding of plant strategies, and how these vary among growth forms and climate zones. We identified the direct and indirect connections across plant traits relevant to competition, resource acquisition and reproductive strategies using a global database and explored whether connections within and between traits from different tissue types vary across climates and growth forms. Location Global. Major taxa studied Plants. Time period Present. Methods We used probabilistic graphical models and a database of 10 plant traits (leaf area, specific leaf area, mass‐ and area‐based leaf nitrogen and phosphorous content, leaf life span, plant height, stem specific density and seed mass) with 16,281 records to describe direct and indirect connections across woody and non‐woody plants across tropical, temperate, arid, cold and polar regions. Results Trait networks based on direct connections are sparser than those based on correlations. Land plants had high connectivity across traits within and between tissue types; leaf life span and stem specific density shared direct connections with all other traits. For both growthmore » forms, two groups of traits form modules of more highly connected traits; one related to resource acquisition, the other to plant architecture and reproduction. Woody species had higher trait network modularity in polar compared to temperate and tropical climates, while non‐woody species did not show significant differences in modularity across climate regions. Main conclusions Plant traits are highly connected both within and across tissue types, yet traits segregate into persistent modules of traits. Variation in the modularity of trait networks suggests that trait connectivity is shaped by prevailing environmental conditions and demonstrates that plants of different growth forms use alternative strategies to cope with local conditions.« less

Authors:

Flores‐Moreno, Habacuc  ^[1];

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Fazayeli, Farideh ^[2]; Banerjee, Arindam ^[2]; Datta, Abhirup ^[3]; Kattge, Jens ^[4]; Butler, Ethan E.  ^[5];

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Atkin, Owen K. ^[6]; Wythers, Kirk ^[5]; Chen, Ming ^[5]; Anand, Madhur ^[7]; Bahn, Michael ^[8]; Byun, Chaeho ^[9]; Cornelissen, J. Hans C. ^[10]; Craine, Joseph ^[11]; Gonzalez‐Melo, Andres ^[12]; Hattingh, Wesley N. ^[13]; Jansen, Steven ^[14]; Kraft, Nathan J. B. ^[15]; Kramer, Koen ^[16]; Laughlin, Daniel C. ^[17] more »; Minden, Vanessa ^[18]; Niinemets, Ülo  ^[19];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-3078-2192"

Onipchenko, Vladimir ^[20]; Peñuelas, Josep ^[21]; Soudzilovskaia, Nadejda A. ^[22]; Dalrymple, Rhiannon L.  ^[23];

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Reich, Peter B. ^[24]; Kerkhoff, ed., Andrew « less

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior University of Minnesota St. Paul Minnesota, Department of Forest Resources University of Minnesota St. Paul Minnesota
2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Minnesota Minneapolis Minnesota
3. Department of Biostatistics Johns Hopkins University Baltimore Maryland
4. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena Germany, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
5. Department of Forest Resources University of Minnesota St. Paul Minnesota
6. ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia, Division of Plant Sciences Research School of Biology, the Australian National University Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia
7. School of Environmental Sciences University of Guelph Guelph Ontario Canada
8. Insitute of Ecology University of Innsbruck Innsbruck Austria
9. School of Biological Sciences Seoul National University Seoul South Korea
10. Systems Ecology, Department of Ecological Science Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Netherlands
11. Jonah Ventures Manhattan Kansas
12. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Matematicas Universidad del Rosario Bogota Colombia
13. School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg South Africa
14. Institute of Systematic Botany and Ecology Ulm University Ulm Germany
15. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of California Los Angeles California
16. Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen Environmental Research Wageningen The Netherlands
17. Department of Botany University of Wyoming Laramie Wyoming
18. Department of Biology, Ecology and Biodiversity Vrije Universiteit Brussel Brussels Belgium
19. Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Estonian University of Life Sciences Tartu Estonia
20. Department of Geobotany Moscow State Lomonosov University Moscow Russia
21. CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra Catalonia Spain, CREAF Cerdanyola del Vallès Catalonia Spain
22. Conservation Biology Department Institute of Environmental Sciences, CML, Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands
23. Ecology and Evolution Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences UNSW Sydney Sydney New South Wales Australia
24. Department of Forest Resources University of Minnesota St. Paul Minnesota, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment Western Sydney University New South Wales Australia

Publication Date:

Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE

OSTI Identifier:

1560229

Resource Type:

Publisher's Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Global Ecology and Biogeography

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Global Ecology and Biogeography Journal Volume: 28 Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 1466-822X

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

Country of Publication:

United Kingdom

Language:

English