| 1. |
- Kattge, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access
- 2020
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Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 26:1, s. 119-188
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives.
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| 2. |
- Wilson, Oliver J, et al.
(författare)
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Cold spot microrefugia hold the key to survival for Brazil's Critically Endangered Araucaria tree
- 2019
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Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 25:12, s. 4339-4351
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Brazil's Araucaria tree (Araucaria angustifolia) is an iconic living fossil and a defining element of the Atlantic Forest global biodiversity hotspot. But despite more than two millennia as a cultural icon in southern Brazil, Araucaria is on the brink of extinction, having lost 97% of its extent to 20th-century logging. Although logging is now illegal, 21st-century climate change constitutes a new-but so far unevaluated-threat to Araucaria's future survival. We use a robust ensemble modelling approach, using recently developed climate data, high-resolution topography and fine-scale vegetation maps, to predict the species' response to climate change and its implications for conservation on meso- and microclimate scales. We show that climate-only models predict the total disappearance of Araucaria's most suitable habitat by 2070, but incorporating topographic effects allows potential highland microrefugia to be identified. The legacy of 20th-century destruction is evident-more than a third of these likely holdouts have already lost their natural vegetation-and 21st-century climate change will leave just 3.5% of remnant forest and 28.4% of highland grasslands suitable for Araucaria. Existing protected areas cover only 2.5% of the surviving microrefugia for this culturally important species, and none occur in any designated indigenous territory. Our results suggest that anthropogenic climate change is likely to commit Araucaria to a second consecutive century of significant losses, but targeted interventions could help ensure its survival in the wild.
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| 3. |
- Wilson, Oliver J., et al.
(författare)
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Floristic change in Brazil's Southern Atlantic forest biodiversity hotspot : From the last glacial maximum to the late 21st century
- 2021
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Ingår i: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791. ; 264
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Brazil's Atlantic Forest biome is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, whose heterogeneous ecosystems are threatened by habitat loss and climate change. Palaeoecological research can provide essential context for the impacts of anthropogenic climate change in the 21st Century and beyond, but existing studies have notable limitations in the insights they can provide: vegetation proxy data are spatially and temporally skewed with inconsistent taxonomic resolution; existing modelling studies typically overlook individualistic species-level responses, are limited in temporal coverage, and lack close integration with empirical palaeoecological data. Here, we investigate the impact of major climate changes upon the species-level floristic composition of southern Brazil's Atlantic Forest, from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the late 21st century, by modelling the distributions of 30 key species at seven time slices since the LGM and comparing the assemblages they form with an unprecedented dataset of palaeoecological proxy data. We find notable compositional changes through time across our study area, especially during the early Holocene, which was characterised by extensive no-analogue plant communities. Aspects of these modelled floristic changes are captured in proxy records but many occur in data-sparse regions, highlighting geographic foci for future palaeoecological investigation to test these model predictions. Our findings highlight the individualistic responses of Atlantic Forest plant species to climate change and help resolve long-standing palaeoecological questions – explaining the dominance of highland grasslands at the Last Glacial Maximum (likely due to low atmospheric CO2 concentrations), clarifying the LGM extent of coastal tropical forest (probably in a grassland matrix on exposed continental shelf), and explaining the origins of Araucaria angustifolia's western populations (from climatic (micro-)refugia rather than human-mediated dispersal). Our results also set the 21st Century's impending climate and vegetation changes in a 21,000-year temporal context, revealing that, under a high emissions scenario, more than 100,000 km2 of the southern Atlantic Forest will experience more climate-driven floristic change in the coming decades than it has in the last 21 millennia.
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