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opencc-by-4.0Apr 2020View details →

Individual-based plant-pollinator networks are structured by phenotypic and microsite plant traits

Dataset associated with the manuscript "Individual-based plant-pollinator networks are structured by phenotypic and microsite plant traits" (Arroyo-Correa et al. 2020), including plant-pollinator interactions, individual plant attributes and the plant polygon map created with drone flights.

opencc-zeroJan 2021View details →

Effects of plant hydraulic traits on the flammability of live fine canopy fuels in 62 Australian plant species

<ol> <li>Plant species vary in how they regulate moisture and this has implications for their flammability during wildfires. We explored how fuel moisture is shaped by variation within six hydraulic traits: saturated moisture content, cell wall rigidity, cell solute potential, symplastic water fraction and tissue capacitance.</li> <li>Using pressure-volume curves, we measured these hydraulic traits distal shoots (i.e. twigs + leaves) in 62 plant species across four wooded communities in south-eastern Australia. For a subset of 30 of those species, we also measured hydraulic traits of twigs using moisture-release curves. Moisture content of fine fuels was then estimated for circumstances typical of fire weather. These projections were made assuming that under the hot, dry, windy conditions typical of large wildfires, leaves and fine twigs would function at internal water pressures close to wilting point (i.e. turgor loss point, TLP). The effect of different moisture contents at TLP on ignition time was then modelled using a fully mechanistic, finite element model of biomass ignition based on standard principles of physical chemistry.</li> <li>We also measured predawn water potential, an indication of plant access to soil water that is influenced by root architecture. These data were used to model how root traits influence fuel moisture and ignition time.</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Functional traits—not nativeness—shape the effects of large mammalian herbivores on plant communities

Large mammalian herbivores (megafauna) have experienced extinctions and declines since prehistory. Introduced megafauna have partly counteracted these losses yet are thought to have unusually negative effects compared to native megafauna. Using a meta-analysis of 3,995 plot-scale plant abundance and diversity responses from 221 studies, we found no evidence that megafauna impacts were shaped by nativeness, 'invasiveness', 'feralness', coevolutionary history, or functional and phylogenetic novelty. Nor was there evidence that introduced megafauna facilitate introduced plants more than native megafauna. Instead, we found strong evidence that functional traits shaped megafauna impacts, with larger-bodied and bulk-feeding megafauna promoting plant diversity. Our work suggests that trait-based ecology provides better insight into interactions between megafauna and plants than concepts of nativeness.

opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

Drivers of plant diversity, community composition, functional traits and soil processes along an alpine gradient in the central Chilean Andes

The datasets in this repository include plant community surveys, hyperspectral reflectance data at the leaf and canopy level, leaf trait data, and soil chemistry data collected at five sites along an elevation gradient of 2400m-3500m in the Chilean Andes (33°S, 70°W). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the environmental drivers of community assembly processes along the elevation gradient.

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Data from: Evidence for reductions in physical and chemical plant defense traits in island flora

Reduced defense against large herbivores has been suggested to be part of the "island syndrome" in plants. However, empirical evidence for this pattern is mixed. In this paper, we present two studies that compare putative physical and chemical defense traits from plants on the California Channel Islands and nearby mainland based on sampling of both field and common garden plants. In the first study, we focus on five pairs of woody shrubs from three island and three mainland locations and find evidence for increased leaf area, decreased marginal leaf spines, and decreased concentrations of cyanogenic glycosides in island plants. We observed similar increases in leaf area and decreases in defense traits when comparing island and mainland genotypes grown together in botanic gardens, suggesting that trait differences are not solely driven by abiotic differences between island and mainland sites. In the second study, we conducted a common garden experiment with a perennial herb—Stachys bullata (Lamiaceae)—collected from two island and four mainland locations. Compared to their mainland relatives, island genotypes show highly reduced glandular trichomes and a nearly 100-fold reduction in mono- and sesquiterpene compounds from leaf surfaces. Island genotypes also had significantly higher specific leaf area, somewhat lower rates of gas exchange, and greater aboveground biomass than mainland genotypes across two years of study, potentially reflecting a broader shift in growth habit. Together, our results provide evidence for reduced expression of putative defense traits in island plants, though these results may reflect adaptation to both biotic (i.e., the historical absence of large herbivores) and climatic conditions on islands.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2024View details →

Plant traits shape global spatiotemporal variations in photosynthetic efficiency

Dataset to reproduce key results in the following work: Plant traits shape global spatiotemporal variations in photosynthetic efficiency

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2021View details →

Data and code for "Relationships between aboveground plant traits and carbon cycling in tundra plant communities"

Paper See the preprint for more detailed description of the performend analyses <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/865899">here.</a> Description of subdirectories The structure of this repository loosely follows that recommended by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005510">Wilson et al. 2017</a>. docs Contains data documentation and metadata. data Holds raw, unedited data src Contains analysis scripts. The src/new_analyses.R script generates all the figures for this project. The other scripts prepare the data for analysis, and must be run before src/new_analyses.R results Contains all analysis results, cleaned, analysis-ready data, figures, etc. Some of the figures (such as measurement schematics) have been generated by hand, and are thus not linked to any scripts.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2013View details →

Fig. 2. – Species prediction for a grid cell. A in Geographical patterns of woody plants' functional traits in Burkina Faso

Fig. 2. – Species prediction for a grid cell. A. Average of maximal plant size; B. Percentage of spinescent species; C. Percentage of species containing latex; D. Percentage of species with compound leaves.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2013View details →

Fig. 1. – Study area. A in Geographical patterns of woody plants' functional traits in Burkina Faso

Fig. 1. – Study area. A. Species richness of the 129 woody plants, distribution records and position of Burkina Faso within Africa; B. Names of landscape elements and cities mentioned in the results.

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

Data from: Global plant-frugivore trait matching is shaped by climate and biogeographic history

Species interactions are influenced by the trait structure of local multi-trophic communities. However, it remains unclear whether mutualistic interactions, in particular, can drive trait patterns at the global scale, where climatic constraints and biogeographic processes gain importance. Here we evaluate global relationships between traits of frugivorous birds and palms (Arecaceae), and how these relationships are affected, directly or indirectly, by assemblage richness, climate and biogeographic history. We leverage a new and expanded gape size dataset for nearly all avian frugivores, and find a positive relationship between gape size and fruit size, that is, trait matching, which is influenced indirectly by palm richness and climate. We also uncover a latitudinal gradient in trait matching strength, which increases towards the tropics and varies among zoogeographic realms. Taken together, our results suggest trophic interactions have consistent influences on trait structure, but that abiotic, biogeographic and richness effects also play important, though sometimes indirect, roles in shaping the functional biogeography of mutualisms.

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Assessing the vulnerability of plant functional trait strategies to climate change

Aim: Our ability to understand how species may respond to changing climate conditions is hampered by a lack of high-quality data on the adaptive capacity of species. Plant functional traits are linked to many aspects of species life history and adaptation to environment, with different combinations of trait values reflecting alternate strategies for adapting to varied conditions. If the realised climate limits of species can be partially explained by plant functional trait combinations, then a new approach of using trait combinations to predict the expected climate limits of species trait combinations may offer considerable benefits. Location: Australia. Time period: Current and future. Methods: Using trait data for leaf size, seed mass and plant height for 6,747 Australian native species from 27 plant families, we model the expected climate limits of trait combinations and use future climate scenarios to estimate climate change impacts based on plant functional trait strategies. Results: Functional trait combinations were a significant predictor of species climate niche metrics with potentially meaningful relationships with two rainfall variables (R2 = 0.36 & 0.45) and three temperature variables (R2 = 0.21, 0.28, 0.30). Using this method, the proportion of species exposed to conditions across their range that are beyond the expected climate limits of their trait strategies will increase under climate change. Main conclusions: Our new approach, called Trait Strategy Vulnerability, includes three new metrics. For example, the Climate Change Vulnerability (CCV) metric identified a small but important proportion of species (4.3%) that will on average be exposed to conditions beyond their expected limits for summer temperature in the future. These potentially vulnerable species could be high priority targets for deeper assessment of adaptive capacity at the genomic or physiological level. Our methods can be applied to any suite of co-occurring plants globally.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2022View details →

Data and code from: Geomorphological processes shape plant community traits in the Arctic

Aim Geomorphological processes profoundly affect plant establishment and distributions, but their influence on functional traits is insufficiently understood. Here, we unveil trait-geomorphology relationships in Arctic plant communities.   Location High-Arctic Svalbard, low-Arctic Greenland, and sub-Arctic Fennoscandia.   Time period 2011-2018   Major taxa studied Vascular plants   Methods We collected field-quantified data on vegetation, geomorphological processes, microclimate, and soil properties from 5280 plots and 200 species across the three Arctic regions. We combined these data with database trait records to relate local plant community trait composition to dominant geomorphological processes of the Arctic, namely cryoturbation, deflation, fluvial processes, and solifluction. We investigated the relationship between plant functional traits and geomorphological processes using hierarchical generalised additive modelling.   Results Our results demonstrate that community-level traits are related to geomorphological processes, with cryoturbation most strongly influencing both structural and leaf economic traits. These results were consistent across regions, suggesting a coherent biome-level trait response to geomorphological processes.   Main conclusions The results indicate that geomorphological processes shape plant community traits in the Arctic. We provide empirical evidence for the existence of generalisable relationships between plant functional traits and geomorphological processes. The results indicate that the relationships are consistent across these three distinct tundra regions and that geomorphological processes should be considered in future investigations of functional traits.   Kemppinen, Niittynen, Happonen, le Roux, Aalto, Hjort, Maliniemi, Karjalainen, Rautakoski & Luoto. Provisionally accepted. Geomorphological processes shape plant community traits in the Arctic. Global Ecology and Biogeography. These are the data and code from Kemppinen et al. (Provisionally accepted).

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

Data from: Plant host traits mediated by foliar fungal symbionts and secondary metabolites

Fungal symbionts living inside plant leaves ("endophytes") can vary from beneficial to parasitic, but the mechanisms by which the fungi affect the plant host phenotype remain poorly understood. Chemical interactions are likely the proximal mechanism of interaction between foliar endophytes and the plant, as individual fungal strains are often exploited for their diverse secondary metabolite production. Here, we go beyond single strains to examine commonalities in how 16 fungal endophytes shift plant phenotypic traits such as growth and physiology, and how those relate to plant metabolomics profiles. We inoculated individual fungi on switchgrass, Panicum virgatum L. This created a limited range of plant growth and physiology (2–370% of fungus-free controls on average), but effects of most fungi overlapped, indicating functional similarities in unstressed conditions. Overall plant metabolomics profiles included almost 2000 metabolites, which were broadly correlated with plant traits across all the fungal treatments. Terpenoid-rich samples were associated with larger, more physiologically active plants and phenolic-rich samples were associated with smaller, less active plants. Only 47 metabolites were enriched in plants inoculated with fungi relative to fungus-free controls, and of these, LASSO regression identified 12 metabolites that explained from 14–43% of plant trait variation. Fungal long-chain fatty acids and sterol precursors were positively associated with plant photosynthesis, conductance, and shoot biomass, but negatively associated with survival. The phytohormone gibberellin, in contrast, was negatively associated with plant physiology and biomass. These results can inform ongoing efforts to develop metabolites as crop management tools, either by direct application or via breeding, by identifying how associations with more beneficial components of the microbiome may be affected.

opencc-zeroJul 2022View details →

Data from: Strong links between plant traits and microbial activities but different abiotic drivers in mountain grasslands

This dataset contains data and code that support the results in Weil, S.-S., Martinez-Almoyna, C., Piton, G., Renaud, J., Boulangeat, L., Foulquier, A., ... & Thuiller, W. (2021) Strong links between plant traits and microbial activities but different abiotic drivers in mountain grasslands (accepted in Journal of Biogeography). We used an extensive plant-soil dataset that covers 14 elevational gradients (between 1500 and 2800 m of elevation) distributed over the whole French Alps to analyse the spatial co-dependencies between the plant and soil compartments. We ran a Graphical Lasso that extracts the direct and indirect linkages between plant functional composition, soil microbial activities, and environmental conditions (local climate and soil properties). Our main results are 1) that plant traits are tightly associated with microbial activities, the former being driven by climate and the latter by soil properties; 2) that the dominance of specific plant traits was more important than their diversity to determine plant-soil linkages; and 3) that soil microbes invested strongly in nutrient acquisition in sites with conservative plant traits and reduced organic matter quality.

opencc-zeroJul 2024View details →

Data from: Measuring leaf and root functional traits uncovers multidimensionality of plant responses to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Premise of the study While many studies have measured the aboveground responses of plants to mycorrhizal fungi at a single time point, little is known about how plants respond belowground or across time to mycorrhizal symbiosis. By measuring belowground responses as well as growth over time in many plant species, we create a more complete picture of how mycorrhizal fungi benefit their hosts. Methods We grew 26 prairie plant species with and without mycorrhizal fungi and measured fourteen functional traits measuring above and belowground tissue quality and quantity responses and changes in resource allocation. We used function-value trait (FVT) modeling to characterize changes in species growth rate when colonized. Key results While aboveground biomass responses were positive, the response of traits belowground were much more variable. Changes in aboveground biomass accounted for 60.8% of the variation in mycorrhizal responses, supporting the use of aboveground biomass response as the primary response trait. Responses belowground were not associated with aboveground responses and accounted for 18.3% of the variation. Growth responses over time were highly variable across species. Interestingly, none of the measured responses were phylogenetically conserved. Conclusions Mycorrhizal fungi increase plant growth in most scenarios, but the effects of these fungi belowground and across time are more complicated. This study highlights how differences in plant allocation priorities might affect how they utilize the benefits from mycorrhizal fungi. Identifying and characterizing these differences is a key step to understanding the effects of mycorrhizal mutualisms on whole plant physiology.

Figs. 3 A-C. A in PLAnt density influence on Life history trAits of A perenniAL herb in rocky outcrops, southeAstern BrAZiL

Figs. 3 A-C. A. Rosettes height in centimeters in contrasting density conditions; B. Rosettes diameter in contrasting density conditions; C. Leaf number per rosette in contrasting density conditions. The bars represent the mean and the line is the standard deviation.

Figs. 4 A-B. A in PLAnt density influence on Life history trAits of A perenniAL herb in rocky outcrops, southeAstern BrAZiL

Figs. 4 A-B. A. Flower scape number per rosette in contrasting density conditions; B. Flower scape length in contrasting density conditions.

Fig. 1 in PLAnt density influence on Life history trAits of A perenniAL herb in rocky outcrops, southeAstern BrAZiL

Fig. 1. Map of the studied area, showing the location of Estação de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Ambiental de Peti on Minas Gerais State, Brazil.

Figs. 2. A-B. A. A in PLAnt density influence on Life history trAits of A perenniAL herb in rocky outcrops, southeAstern BrAZiL

Figs. 2. A-B. A. A flowering specimen of Vellozia albiflora Pohl on gneiss outcrops of Morro do Cruzeiro, MG, Brazil. B. Sampling area showing a dense mat of plants, determined as the "high density" condition in this study. Bar = 3 cm.