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Bjorkman AD, Myers-Smith IH, Elmendorf SC, Normand S, Rüger N, Beck PSA, Blach-Overgaard A, Blok D, Cornelissen JHC, Forbes BC, Georges D, Goetz SJ, Guay KC, Henry GHR, HilleRisLambers J, Hollister RD, Karger DN, Kattge J, Manning P, Prevéy JS, Rixen C, Schaepman-Strub G, Thomas HJD, Vellend M, Wilmking M, Wipf S, Carbognani M, Hermanutz L, Lévesque E, Molau U, Petraglia A, Soudzilovskaia NA, Spasojevic MJ, Tomaselli M, Vowles T, Alatalo JM, Alexander HD, Anadon-Rosell A, Angers-Blondin S, Beest MT, Berner L, Björk RG, Buchwal A, Buras A, Christie K, Cooper EJ, Dullinger S, Elberling B, Eskelinen A, Frei ER, Grau O, Grogan P, Hallinger M, Harper KA, Heijmans MMPD, Hudson J, Hülber K, Iturrate-Garcia M, Iversen CM, Jaroszynska F, Johnstone JF, Jørgensen RH, Kaarlejärvi E, Klady R, Kuleza S, Kulonen A, Lamarque LJ, Lantz T, Little CJ, Speed JDM, Michelsen A, Milbau A, Nabe-Nielsen J, Nielsen SS, Ninot JM, Oberbauer SF, Olofsson J, Onipchenko VG, Rumpf SB, Semenchuk P, Shetti R, Collier LS, Street LE, Suding KN, Tape KD, Trant A, Treier UA, Tremblay JP, Tremblay M, Venn S, Weijers S, Zamin T, Boulanger-Lapointe N, Gould WA, Hik DS, Hofgaard A, Jónsdóttir IS, Jorgenson J, Klein J, Magnusson B, Tweedie C, Wookey PA, Bahn M, Blonder B, van Bodegom PM, Bond-Lamberty B, Campetella G, Cerabolini BEL, Chapin FS, Cornwell WK, Craine J, Dainese M, de Vries FT, Díaz S, Enquist BJ, Green W, Milla R, Niinemets Ü, Onoda Y, Ordoñez JC, Ozinga WA, Penuelas J, Poorter H, Poschlod P, Reich PB, Sandel B, Schamp B, Sheremetev S, Weiher E. Plant functional trait change across a warming tundra biome. Nature 2018; 562:57-62. [PMID: 30258229 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0563-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 208] [Impact Index Per Article: 34.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2017] [Accepted: 08/08/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature-trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially important influence of changes in water availability on future trait shifts in tundra plant communities. Community height increased with warming across all sites over the past three decades, but other traits lagged far behind predicted rates of change. Our findings highlight the challenge of using space-for-time substitution to predict the functional consequences of future warming and suggest that functions that are tied closely to plant height will experience the most rapid change. They also reveal the strength with which environmental factors shape biotic communities at the coldest extremes of the planet and will help to improve projections of functional changes in tundra ecosystems with climate warming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne D Bjorkman
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. .,Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. .,Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt, Germany.
| | | | - Sarah C Elmendorf
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.,National Ecological Observatory Network, Boulder, CO, USA.,Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Signe Normand
- Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Arctic Research Center, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Nadja Rüger
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
| | - Pieter S A Beck
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate D - Sustainable Resources, Bio-Economy Unit, Ispra, Italy
| | - Anne Blach-Overgaard
- Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Daan Blok
- Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - J Hans C Cornelissen
- Systems Ecology, Department of Ecological Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Bruce C Forbes
- Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland
| | - Damien Georges
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.,International Agency for Research in Cancer, Lyon, France
| | - Scott J Goetz
- School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
| | - Kevin C Guay
- Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME, USA
| | - Gregory H R Henry
- Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | | | | | - Dirk N Karger
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Jens Kattge
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
| | - Peter Manning
- Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Janet S Prevéy
- WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland
| | - Christian Rixen
- WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland
| | - Gabriela Schaepman-Strub
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Mark Vellend
- Département de biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
| | - Martin Wilmking
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Sonja Wipf
- WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland
| | - Michele Carbognani
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Luise Hermanutz
- Department of Biology, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
| | - Esther Lévesque
- Département des Sciences de l'environnement et Centre d'études nordiques, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
| | - Ulf Molau
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Alessandro Petraglia
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Nadejda A Soudzilovskaia
- Environmental Biology Department, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Marko J Spasojevic
- Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
| | - Marcello Tomaselli
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Tage Vowles
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Juha M Alatalo
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
| | - Heather D Alexander
- Department of Forestry, Forest and Wildlife Research Center, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA
| | - Alba Anadon-Rosell
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany.,Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,Biodiversity Research Institute, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Mariska Te Beest
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.,Environmental Sciences, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Logan Berner
- School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
| | - Robert G Björk
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.,Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Göteborg, Sweden
| | - Agata Buchwal
- Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland.,Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alaska, Anchorage, Anchorage, AK, USA
| | - Allan Buras
- Forest Ecology and Forest Management, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | | | - Elisabeth J Cooper
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Stefan Dullinger
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Bo Elberling
- Center for Permafrost (CENPERM), Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Anu Eskelinen
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Esther R Frei
- Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.,Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Oriol Grau
- Global Ecology Unit, CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.,CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Paul Grogan
- Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
| | - Martin Hallinger
- Biology Department, Swedish Agricultural University (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Karen A Harper
- Biology Department, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Monique M P D Heijmans
- Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - James Hudson
- British Columbia Public Service, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Karl Hülber
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Maitane Iturrate-Garcia
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Colleen M Iversen
- Climate Change Science Institute and Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Francesca Jaroszynska
- WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland.,Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
| | - Jill F Johnstone
- Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
| | - Rasmus Halfdan Jørgensen
- Forest and Landscape College, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Nødebo, Denmark
| | - Elina Kaarlejärvi
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.,Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Rebecca Klady
- Department of Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Sara Kuleza
- Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
| | - Aino Kulonen
- WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland
| | - Laurent J Lamarque
- Département des Sciences de l'environnement et Centre d'études nordiques, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
| | - Trevor Lantz
- School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Chelsea J Little
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dubendorf, Switzerland
| | - James D M Speed
- NTNU University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Anders Michelsen
- Center for Permafrost (CENPERM), Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ann Milbau
- Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Brussels, Belgium
| | | | - Sigrid Schøler Nielsen
- Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Josep M Ninot
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,Biodiversity Research Institute, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Steven F Oberbauer
- Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
| | - Johan Olofsson
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
| | | | - Sabine B Rumpf
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Philipp Semenchuk
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.,Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Rohan Shetti
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Laura Siegwart Collier
- Department of Biology, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
| | - Lorna E Street
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Katharine N Suding
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Ken D Tape
- Institute of Northern Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Andrew Trant
- Department of Biology, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.,School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
| | - Urs A Treier
- Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Arctic Research Center, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.,Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Jean-Pierre Tremblay
- Département de biologie, Centre d'études nordiques and Centre d'étude de la forêt, Université Laval, Quebec City, Québec, Canada
| | - Maxime Tremblay
- Département des Sciences de l'environnement et Centre d'études nordiques, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
| | - Susanna Venn
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
| | - Stef Weijers
- Department of Geography, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Tara Zamin
- Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - William A Gould
- USDA Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico
| | - David S Hik
- Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
| | | | - Ingibjörg S Jónsdóttir
- Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland.,University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Norway
| | - Janet Jorgenson
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Julia Klein
- Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | | | | | - Philip A Wookey
- Biology and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
| | - Michael Bahn
- Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Benjamin Blonder
- Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Crested Butte, CO, USA
| | - Peter M van Bodegom
- Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Benjamin Bond-Lamberty
- Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Giandiego Campetella
- School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, Plant Diversity and Ecosystems Management Unit, University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy
| | | | - F Stuart Chapin
- Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - William K Cornwell
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ecology and Evolution Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | | | - Matteo Dainese
- Institute for Alpine Environment, Eurac Research, Bolzano, Italy
| | - Franciska T de Vries
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Sandra Díaz
- Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV), CONICET and FCEFyN, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
| | - Brian J Enquist
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.,The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA
| | - Walton Green
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Ruben Milla
- Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación. Departamento de Biología, Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ülo Niinemets
- Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Yusuke Onoda
- Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | | | - Wim A Ozinga
- Team Vegetation, Forest and Landscape Ecology, Wageningen Environmental Research (Alterra), Wageningen, The Netherlands.,Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Josep Penuelas
- CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.,Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Hendrik Poorter
- Plant Sciences (IBG-2), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany.,Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Peter Poschlod
- Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Peter B Reich
- Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA.,Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Brody Sandel
- Department of Biology, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA
| | - Brandon Schamp
- Department of Biology, Algoma University, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Evan Weiher
- Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire, Eau Claire, WI, USA
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