Climate regulation processes are linked to the functional composition of plant communities in European forests, shrublands, and grasslands

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Authors

KAMBACH Stephan ATTORRE Fabio AXMANOVÁ Irena BERGAMINI Ariel BIURRUN Idoia BONARI Gianmaria CARRANZA Maria Laura CHIARUCCI Alessandro CHYTRÝ Milan DENGLER Juergen GARBOLINO Emmanuel GOLUB Valentin HICKLER Thomas JANDT Ute JANSEN Jan JIMENEZ-ALFARO Borja KARGER Dirk Nikolaus LOSOSOVÁ Zdeňka RASOMAVICIUS Valerijus RUSINA Solvita SIEBER Petra STANISCI Angela THUILLER Wilfried WELK Erik ZIMMERMANN Niklaus E BRUELHEIDE Helge

Year of publication 2024
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Global Change Biology
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17189
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17189
Keywords albedo; biodiversity change; climate change; climate-surface models; greenhouse gases; land use change; leaf economics spectrum; nature-based solutions; transpiration
Description Terrestrial ecosystems affect climate by reflecting solar irradiation, evaporative cooling, and carbon sequestration. Yet very little is known about how plant traits affect climate regulation processes (CRPs) in different habitat types. Here, we used linear and random forest models to relate the community-weighted mean and variance values of 19 plant traits (summarized into eight trait axes) to the climate-adjusted proportion of reflected solar irradiation, evapotranspiration, and net primary productivity across 36,630 grid cells at the European extent, classified into 10 types of forest, shrubland, and grassland habitats. We found that these trait axes were more tightly linked to log evapotranspiration (with an average of 6.2% explained variation) and the proportion of reflected solar irradiation (6.1%) than to net primary productivity (4.9%). The highest variation in CRPs was explained in forest and temperate shrubland habitats. Yet, the strength and direction of these relationships were strongly habitat-dependent. We conclude that any spatial upscaling of the effects of plant communities on CRPs must consider the relative contribution of different habitat types.
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