Leaf-level coordination principles propagate to the ecosystem scale
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 trade-offs and optimality principles in functional traits of leaves are conserved at the ecosystem level.
Here, we tested three well-known leaf- and plant-level coordination theories at the ecosystem scale: the leaf economics spectrum, the global spectrum of plant form and function, and the least-cost hypothesis. We combined ecosystem functional properties from 98 FLUXNET sites, vegetation properties, and ecosystem-level plant traits into three corresponding principal component analyses. We show that leaf-scale coordination is conserved at the ecosystem scale. However, additional processes operate at the ecosystem level, highlighting the importance of scale-emergent properties in understanding and predicting ecosystem behaviour. Evaluating the coordination of ecosystem functional properties will aid the development of more realistic global dynamic vegetation models with critical empirical data, reducing the uncertainty of climate change projections.
GOMARASCA Ulisse;
MIGLIAVACCA Mirco;
KATTGE Jens;
NELSON Jacob;
NIINEMETS Ulo;
WIRTH Christian;
CESCATTI Alessandro;
BAHN Michael;
NAIR Richard;
ACOSTA Alicia;
ARAIN Altaf;
BELOIU Mirela;
BLACK Andrew;
BRUUN Henrik;
BUCHER Franziska Solveig;
BUCHMANN Nina;
BYUN Chaeho;
CARRARA Arnaud;
CONTE Adriano;
DA SILVA Ana;
DUVEILLER Grégory;
FARES Silvano;
IBROM Andreas;
KNOHL Alexander;
KOMAC Benjamin;
LIMOUSIN Jean-Marc;
LUSK Christopher;
MAHECHA Miguel;
MARTINI David;
MINDEN Vanessa;
MONTAGNANI Leonardo;
MORI Akira;
ONODA Yusuke;
PENUELAS Josep;
PEREZ-PRIEGO Oscar;
POSCHLOD Peter;
POWELL Thomas L;
REICH Peter;
ŠIGUT Ladislav;
VAN BODEGOM Peter;
WALTHER Sophia;
WOHLFAHRT Georg;
WRIGHT Ian;
REICHSTEIN Markus;
2023-07-06
NATURE PORTFOLIO
JRC133317
2041-1723 (online),
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39572-5,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC133317,
10.1038/s41467-023-39572-5 (online),
Additional supporting files
| File name | Description | File type | |
|---|
