Nature Communications (Jul 2023)
Leaf-level coordination principles propagate to the ecosystem scale
- Ulisse Gomarasca,
- Mirco Migliavacca,
- Jens Kattge,
- Jacob A. Nelson,
- Ülo Niinemets,
- Christian Wirth,
- Alessandro Cescatti,
- Michael Bahn,
- Richard Nair,
- Alicia T. R. Acosta,
- M. Altaf Arain,
- Mirela Beloiu,
- T. Andrew Black,
- Hans Henrik Bruun,
- Solveig Franziska Bucher,
- Nina Buchmann,
- Chaeho Byun,
- Arnaud Carrara,
- Adriano Conte,
- Ana C. da Silva,
- Gregory Duveiller,
- Silvano Fares,
- Andreas Ibrom,
- Alexander Knohl,
- Benjamin Komac,
- Jean-Marc Limousin,
- Christopher H. Lusk,
- Miguel D. Mahecha,
- David Martini,
- Vanessa Minden,
- Leonardo Montagnani,
- Akira S. Mori,
- Yusuke Onoda,
- Josep Peñuelas,
- Oscar Perez-Priego,
- Peter Poschlod,
- Thomas L. Powell,
- Peter B. Reich,
- Ladislav Šigut,
- Peter M. van Bodegom,
- Sophia Walther,
- Georg Wohlfahrt,
- Ian J. Wright,
- Markus Reichstein
Affiliations
- Ulisse Gomarasca
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Mirco Migliavacca
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre
- Jens Kattge
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Jacob A. Nelson
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Ülo Niinemets
- Chair of Plant and Crop Science, Estonian University of Life Sciences
- Christian Wirth
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Alessandro Cescatti
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre
- Michael Bahn
- Universität Innsbruck, Institut für Ökologie
- Richard Nair
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Alicia T. R. Acosta
- Dipartimento di Scienze - Università Roma TRE - V.le Marconi 446
- M. Altaf Arain
- School of Earth, Environment & Society and McMaster Centre for Climate Change, McMaster University
- Mirela Beloiu
- Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich
- T. Andrew Black
- Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia
- Hans Henrik Bruun
- Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen
- Solveig Franziska Bucher
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena Leipzig
- Nina Buchmann
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich
- Chaeho Byun
- Department of Biological Sciences, Andong National University
- Arnaud Carrara
- Fundación Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo (CEAM)
- Adriano Conte
- National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP)
- Ana C. da Silva
- Santa Catarina State University, Agroveterinary Center, Forestry Department, Av Luiz de Camões, 2090, Conta Dinheiro, 88.520-000
- Gregory Duveiller
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Silvano Fares
- National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (ISAFOM)
- Andreas Ibrom
- Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Environmental Engineering and Resource Management
- Alexander Knohl
- Bioclimatology, University of Göttingen
- Benjamin Komac
- Andorra Research + Innovation; Avinguda Rocafort 21-23, Edifici Molí, 3r pis
- Jean-Marc Limousin
- CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD
- Christopher H. Lusk
- Environmenal Research Institute, University of Waikato, Private Bag
- Miguel D. Mahecha
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena Leipzig
- David Martini
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Vanessa Minden
- Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Leonardo Montagnani
- Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bolzano
- Akira S. Mori
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo
- Yusuke Onoda
- Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Oiwake, Kitashirakawa
- Josep Peñuelas
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra
- Oscar Perez-Priego
- Department of Forestry Engineering, University of Córdoba, Edif. Leonardo da Vinci, Campus de Rabanales s/n
- Peter Poschlod
- Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences - Faculty of Biology and Preclinical Medicine - University of Regensburg
- Thomas L. Powell
- The Department of Earth and Environmental Systems, The University of the South
- Peter B. Reich
- Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota
- Ladislav Šigut
- Department of Matter and Energy Fluxes, Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
- Peter M. van Bodegom
- Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University
- Sophia Walther
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Georg Wohlfahrt
- Universität Innsbruck, Institut für Ökologie
- Ian J. Wright
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University
- Markus Reichstein
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39572-5
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 14,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 11
Abstract
Abstract Fundamental axes of variation in plant traits result from trade-offs between costs and benefits of resource-use strategies at the leaf scale. However, it is unclear whether similar trade-offs propagate to the ecosystem level. Here, we test whether trait correlation patterns predicted by three well-known leaf- and plant-level coordination theories – the leaf economics spectrum, the global spectrum of plant form and function, and the least-cost hypothesis – are also observed between community mean traits and ecosystem processes. We combined ecosystem functional properties from FLUXNET sites, vegetation properties, and community mean plant traits into three corresponding principal component analyses. We find that the leaf economics spectrum (90 sites), the global spectrum of plant form and function (89 sites), and the least-cost hypothesis (82 sites) all propagate at the ecosystem level. However, we also find evidence of additional scale-emergent properties. Evaluating the coordination of ecosystem functional properties may aid the development of more realistic global dynamic vegetation models with critical empirical data, reducing the uncertainty of climate change projections.
