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Modes of functional biodiversity control on tree productivity across the European continent
Ratcliffe, Sophia (Karl-Marx-Universität Leipzig. Institut für Biologie)
Liebergesell, Mario (Karl-Marx-Universität Leipzig. Institut für Biologie)
Ruiz-Benito, Paloma (Universidad de Alcalá. Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida)
Madrigal González, Jaime (Universidad de Alcalá. Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida)
Muñoz Castañeda, Jose M. (Karl-Marx-Universität Leipzig. Institut für Theoretische Physik)
Kändler, Gerald (Forstliche Versuchs- und Forschungsanstalt Baden-Württemberg)
Lehtonen, Aleksi (Luonnonvarakeskus (Luke))
Dahlgren, Jonas (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)
Kattge, Jens (Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie)
Peñuelas, Josep (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Zavala, Miguel A. (Universidad de Alcalá. Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida)
Wirth, Christian (Karl-Marx-Universität Leipzig. Institut für Biologie)

Date: 2016
Abstract: Aim : the relative contribution of community functional diversity and composition to ecosystem functioning is a critical question in ecology in order to enable better predictions of how ecosystems may respond to a changing climate. However, there is little consensus about which modes of functional biodiversity are most important for tree growth at large spatial scales. Here we assessed the relative importance of climate, functional diversity and functional identity (i. e. the community mean values of four key functional traits) for tree growth across the European continent, spanning the northern boreal to the southern Mediterranean forests. - Location: Finland, Germany, Sweden, Spain and Wallonia (Belgium). - Methods: using data from five European national forest inventories we applied a hierarchical linear model to estimate the sensitivity of tree growth to changes in climate, functional diversity and functional identity along a latitudinal gradient. - Results: functional diversity was weakly related to tree growth in the temperate and boreal regions and more strongly in the Mediterranean region. In the temperate region, where climate was the most important predictor, functional diversity and identity had a similar importance for tree growth. Functional identity was strongest at the latitudinal extremes of the continent, largely driven by strong changes in the importance of maximum height along the latitudinal gradient. - Main conclusions: functional diversity is an important driver of tree growth in the Mediterranean region, providing evidence that niche complementarity may be more important for tree growth in water-limited forests. The strong influence of functional identity at the latitudinal extremes indicates the importance of a particular trait composition for tree growth in harsh climates. Furthermore, we speculate that this functional identity signal may reflect a trait-based differentiation of successional stages rather than abiotic filtering due to water or energy limitation.
Grants: European Commission 265171
European Commission 267243
Rights: Tots els drets reservats.
Language: Anglès
Document: Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject: Climatic gradient ; Environmental filtering ; Forest succession ; FunDivEUROPE ; Landscape scale ; Plant functional traits ; Tree productivity
Published in: Global ecology and biogeography, Vol. 25 Issue 3 (March 2016) , p. 251-262, ISSN 1466-822X

DOI: 10.1111/geb.12406


Post-print
40 p, 2.7 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles

 Record created 2016-03-31, last modified 2024-02-21



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