| 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. |
- Lembrechts, Jonas J., et al.
(författare)
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SoilTemp : A global database of near-surface temperature
- 2020
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Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 26:11, s. 6616-6629
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Current analyses and predictions of spatially explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long-term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate-forcing factors that operate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions are overlooked. This is particularly important in relation to effects of observation height (e.g. vegetation, snow and soil characteristics) and in habitats varying in their exposure to radiation, moisture and wind (e.g. topography, radiative forcing or cold-air pooling). Since organisms living close to the ground relate more strongly to these microclimatic conditions than to free-air temperatures, microclimatic ground and near-surface data are needed to provide realistic forecasts of the fate of such organisms under anthropogenic climate change, as well as of the functioning of the ecosystems they live in. To fill this critical gap, we highlight a call for temperature time series submissions to SoilTemp, a geospatial database initiative compiling soil and near-surface temperature data from all over the world. Currently, this database contains time series from 7,538 temperature sensors from 51 countries across all key biomes. The database will pave the way toward an improved global understanding of microclimate and bridge the gap between the available climate data and the climate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions relevant to most organisms and ecosystem processes.
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| 3. |
- Moles, Angela T, et al.
(författare)
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Correlations between physical and chemical defences in plants : tradeoffs, syndromes, or just many different ways to skin a herbivorous cat?
- 2013
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Ingår i: New Phytologist. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 198:1, s. 252-263
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most plant species have a range of traits that deter herbivores. However, understanding of how different defences are related to one another is surprisingly weak. Many authors argue that defence traits trade off against one another, while others argue that they form coordinated defence syndromes. We collected a dataset of unprecedented taxonomic and geographic scope (261 species spanning 80 families, from 75 sites across the globe) to investigate relationships among four chemical and six physical defences. Five of the 45 pairwise correlations between defence traits were significant and three of these were tradeoffs. The relationship between species' overall chemical and physical defence levels was marginally nonsignificant (P=0.08), and remained nonsignificant after accounting for phylogeny, growth form and abundance. Neither categorical principal component analysis (PCA) nor hierarchical cluster analysis supported the idea that species displayed defence syndromes. Our results do not support arguments for tradeoffs or for coordinated defence syndromes. Rather, plants display a range of combinations of defence traits. We suggest this lack of consistent defence syndromes may be adaptive, resulting from selective pressure to deploy a different combination of defences to coexisting species.
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| 4. |
- Bienau, Miriam J., et al.
(författare)
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Snow cover consistently affects growth and reproduction of Empetrum hermaphroditum across latitudinal and local climatic gradients
- 2014
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Ingår i: Alpine Botany. - : Springer. - 1664-2201 .- 1664-221X. ; 124:2, s. 115-129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Arctic ecosystems face strong changes in snow conditions due to global warming. In contrast to habitat specialists, species occupying a wide range of microhabitats under different snow conditions may better cope with such changes. We studied how growth and reproduction of the dominant dwarf shrub Empetrum hermaphroditum varied among three habitat types differing in winter snow depth and summer irradiation, and whether the observed patterns were consistent along a local climatic gradient (sub-continental vs. sub-oceanic climates) and along a latitudinal gradient (northern Sweden vs. central Norway). Habitat type explained most of the variation in growth and reproduction. Shoots from shallow snow cover and high summer irradiation habitats had higher numbers of flowers and fruits, lower ramet heights, shorter shoot segments, lower numbers of lateral shoots and total biomass but higher leaf density and higher relative leaf allocation than shoots from habitats with higher snow depth and lower summer irradiation. In addition, biomass, leaf allocation and leaf life expectancy were strongly affected by latitude, whereas local climate had strong effects on seed number and seed mass. Empetrum showed high phenotypic trait variation, with a consistent match between local habitat conditions and its growth and reproduction. Although study areas varied strongly with respect to latitude and local climatic conditions, response patterns of growth and reproduction to habitats with different environmental conditions were consistent. Large elasticity of traits suggests that Empetrum may have the potential to cope with changing snow conditions expected in the course of climate change.
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| 5. |
- Bienau, Miriam J., et al.
(författare)
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Synchronous flowering despite differences in snowmelt timing among habitats of Empetrum hermaphroditum
- 2015
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Ingår i: Acta Oecologica. - : Elsevier BV. - 1146-609X .- 1873-6238. ; 69, s. 129-136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The topography within arctic-alpine landscapes is very heterogeneous, resulting in diverse snow distribution patterns, with different snowmelt timing in spring. This may influence the phenological development of arctic and alpine plant species and asynchronous flowering may promote adaptation of plants to their local environments. We studied how flowering phenology of the dominant dwarf shrub Empetrum hermaphroditum varied among three habitats (exposed ridges, sheltered depressions and birch forest) differing in winter snow depth and thus snowmelt timing in spring, and whether the observed patterns were consistent across three different study areas. Despite significant differences in snowmelt timing between habitats, full flowering of E. hermaphroditum was nearly synchronous between the habitats, and implies a high flowering overlap. Our data show that exposed ridges, which had a long lag phase between snowmelt and flowering, experienced different temperature and light conditions than the two late melting habitats between snowmelt and flowering. Our study demonstrates that small scale variation seems matter less to flowering of Empetrum than interannual differences in snowmelt timing.
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| 6. |
- Blonder, Benjamin, et al.
(författare)
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Remote sensing of ploidy level in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.)
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0022-0477 .- 1365-2745. ; 108:1, s. 175-188
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ploidy level in plants may influence ecological functioning, demography and response to climate change. However, measuring ploidy level typically requires intensive cell or molecular methods. We map ploidy level variation in quaking aspen, a dominant North American tree species that can be diploid or triploid and that grows in spatially extensive clones. We identify the predictors and spatial scale of ploidy level variation using a combination of genetic and ground-based and airborne remote sensing methods. We show that ground-based leaf spectra and airborne canopy spectra can both classify aspen by ploidy level with a precision-recall harmonic mean of 0.75-0.95 and Cohen's kappa of c. 0.6-0.9. Ground-based bark spectra cannot classify ploidy level better than chance. We also found that diploids are more common on higher elevation and steeper sites in a network of forest plots in Colorado, and that ploidy level distribution varies at subkilometer spatial scales. Synthesis. Our proof-of-concept study shows that remote sensing of ploidy level could become feasible in this tree species. Mapping ploidy level across landscapes could provide insights into the genetic basis of species' responses to climate change.
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| 7. |
- De Frenne, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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Microclimate moderates plant responses to macroclimate warming
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 110:46, s. 18561-18565
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent global warming is acting across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems to favor species adapted to warmer conditions and/or reduce the abundance of cold-adapted organisms (i.e., thermophilization of communities). Lack of community responses to increased temperature, however, has also been reported for several taxa and regions, suggesting that climatic lags may be frequent. Here we show that microclimatic effects brought about by forest canopy closure can buffer biotic responses to macroclimate warming, thus explaining an apparent climatic lag. Using data from 1,409 vegetation plots in European and North American temperate forests, each surveyed at least twice over an interval of 12-67 y, we document significant thermophilization of ground-layer plant communities. These changes reflect concurrent declines in species adapted to cooler conditions and increases in species adapted to warmer conditions. However, thermophilization, particularly the increase of warm-adapted species, is attenuated in forests whose canopies have become denser, probably reflecting cooler growing-season ground temperatures via increased shading. As standing stocks of trees have increased in many temperate forests in recent decades, local microclimatic effects may commonly be moderating the impacts of macroclimate warming on forest understories. Conversely, increases in harvesting woody biomass-e.g., for bioenergy-may open forest canopies and accelerate thermophilization of temperate forest biodiversity.
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| 8. |
- Auffret, Alistair G., et al.
(författare)
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Ontogenetic niche shifts in three Vaccinium species on a sub-alpine mountain side
- 2010
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Ingår i: Plant Ecology & Diversity. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1755-0874 .- 1755-1668. ; 3:2, s. 131-139
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Climate warming in arctic and alpine regions is expected to result in the altitudinal migration of plant species, but current predictions neglect differences between species' regeneration niche and established niche. Aims: To examine potential recruitment of Vaccinium myrtillus, V. uliginosum and V. vitis-idaea on a mountain slope in northern Sweden in relation to current adult occurrence. Methods: We combined a seed-sowing experiment in seven community types with adult occurrence observations and species distribution mapping. Results: Emergence of V. myrtillus and V. vitis-idaea seedlings was significantly related to community type, while V. uliginosum was indifferent, but exhibited the highest average emergence. Adult occurrence was related to community, and ontogenetic niche shifts were observed for all three study species. V. myrtillus was shown to have the highest potential recruitment in habitats at altitudes above its current populations. Conclusions: The potential for migration exists, but incongruence between regenerative and established niches presents a challenge for colonisers, as well as for plant migration modelling.
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| 9. |
- Awuah, Joana, et al.
(författare)
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Can seasonal fire management reduce the risk of carbon loss from wildfires in a protected Guinea savanna?
- 2022
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Ingår i: Ecosphere. - : Wiley. - 2150-8925 .- 2150-8925. ; 13:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fire is fundamental to the functioning of tropical savannas and routinely used as a management tool. Shifting prescribed burning from later to earlier in the growing season has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, large uncertainties surround the impact of seasonal burning on longer term plant and soil carbon sequestration. In this study, we quantify ecosystem carbon storage across burn seasons and histories in a wet-to-mesic Guinea tropical savanna in Mole National Park, Ghana. Aboveground (plant and litter) and belowground (soil plus roots) carbon storage was quantified across four burning seasons and histories: recent (<3 years) early-season burns, recent late-season burns, old (>4 years) late-season burns, and long-unburned (>15 years) sites. We found that recent late-season burns significantly lowered belowground carbon storage to a depth of 17 cm compared with all other burn seasons and histories. Belowground carbon was 1.2 kg C m−2, or 27% lower, for recent late-season burns compared with prescribed early-season burns. However, in older late-season burns sites, belowground carbon “recovered” after 4–13 burn years to comparable storage as long-unburned and early-season burn sites. For most aboveground carbon pools, there was no significant difference in carbon storage across burn seasons and histories, except higher aboveground tree carbon in long-unburned sites. We suggest that observed changes in belowground carbon are likely due to the turnover and production of root carbon. Prescribed early-season burning is promoted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our findings affirm that early-season burning has limited impact on plant and soil carbon stocks compared with long-unburned sites. While early-season burning regimes will have some patches that become late-season wildfires, our results suggest on balance early-season burning regimes are a low-risk land management practice in reducing plant and soil carbon storage losses and sustaining a patch-mosaicked landscape with multiple other ecosystem service benefits for savannas.
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| 10. |
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