| 1. |
- Kattge, Jens, et al.
(författare)
-
TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 26:1, s. 119-188
-
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.
|
|
| 2. |
- Estes, James A., et al.
(författare)
-
Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth
- 2011
-
Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 333:6040, s. 301-306
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Until recently, large apex consumers were ubiquitous across the globe and had been for millions of years. The loss of these animals may be humankind's most pervasive influence on nature. Although such losses are widely viewed as an ethical and aesthetic problem, recent research reveals extensive cascading effects of their disappearance in marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems worldwide. This empirical work supports long-standing theory about the role of top-down forcing in ecosystems but also highlights the unanticipated impacts of trophic cascades on processes as diverse as the dynamics of disease, wildfire, carbon sequestration, invasive species, and biogeochemical cycles. These findings emphasize the urgent need for interdisciplinary research to forecast the effects of trophic downgrading on process, function, and resilience in global ecosystems.
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
| 4. |
- Pantoja, Pauline O., et al.
(författare)
-
Natural selection and outbreeding depression suggest adaptive differentiation in the invasive range of a clonal plant
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 285:1882
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Analyses of phenotypic selection and demography in field populations are powerful ways to establishing the potential role of natural selection in shaping evolution during biological invasions. Here we use experimental F2 crosses between native and introduced populations of Mimulus guttatus to estimate the pattern of natural selection in part of its introduced range, and to seek evidence of outbreeding depression of colonists. The F2s combined the genome of an introduced population with the genome of either native or introduced populations. We found that the introduced × introduced cross had the fastest population growth rate owing to increased winter survival, clonality and seed production. Our analysis also revealed that selection through sexual fitness favoured large floral displays, large vegetative and flower size, lateral spread and early flowering. Our results indicate a source-of-origin effect, consistent with outbreeding depression exposed by mating between introduced and native populations. Our findings suggest that well-established non-native populations may pay a high fitness cost during subsequent bouts of admixture with native populations, and reveal that processes such as local adaptation in the invasive range can mediate the fitness consequences of admixture.
|
|
| 5. |
- Pfeifer, Marion, et al.
(författare)
-
Tropical forest canopies and their relationships with climate and disturbance : results from a global dataset of consistent field-based measurements
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Forest Ecosystems. - : Elsevier BV. - 2095-6355 .- 2197-5620. ; 5:7
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundCanopy structure, defined by leaf area index (LAI), fractional vegetation cover (FCover) and fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR), regulates a wide range of forest functions and ecosystem services. Spatially consistent field-measurements of canopy structure are however lacking, particularly for the tropics.MethodsHere, we introduce the Global LAI database: a global dataset of field-based canopy structure measurements spanning tropical forests in four continents (Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas). We use these measurements to test for climate dependencies within and across continents, and to test for the potential of anthropogenic disturbance and forest protection to modulate those dependences.ResultsUsing data collected from 887 tropical forest plots, we show that maximum water deficit, defined across the most arid months of the year, is an important predictor of canopy structure, with all three canopy attributes declining significantly with increasing water deficit. Canopy attributes also increase with minimum temperature, and with the protection of forests according to both active (within protected areas) and passive measures (through topography). Once protection and continent effects are accounted for, other anthropogenic measures (e.g. human population) do not improve the model.ConclusionsWe conclude that canopy structure in the tropics is primarily a consequence of forest adaptation to the maximum water deficits historically experienced within a given region. Climate change, and in particular changes in drought regimes may thus affect forest structure and function, but forest protection may offer some resilience against this effect.
|
|
