Variation in trait trade-offs allows differentiation among predefined plant functional types: implications for predictive ecology

The New Phytologist
Lieneke M VerheijenPeter M van Bodegom

Abstract

Plant functional types (PFTs) aggregate the variety of plant species into a small number of functionally different classes. We examined to what extent plant traits, which reflect species' functional adaptations, can capture functional differences between predefined PFTs and which traits optimally describe these differences. We applied Gaussian kernel density estimation to determine probability density functions for individual PFTs in an n-dimensional trait space and compared predicted PFTs with observed PFTs. All possible combinations of 1-6 traits from a database with 18 different traits (total of 18 287 species) were tested. A variety of trait sets had approximately similar performance, and 4-5 traits were sufficient to classify up to 85% of the species into PFTs correctly, whereas this was 80% for a bioclimatically defined tree PFT classification. Well-performing trait sets included combinations of correlated traits that are considered functionally redundant within a single plant strategy. This analysis quantitatively demonstrates how structural differences between PFTs are reflected in functional differences described by particular traits. Differentiation between PFTs is possible despite large overlap in plant strategies an...Continue Reading

Associated Datasets

Nov 22, 2011·Michael C. WiemannSteven Jansen

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Sep 17, 2014·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Peter M van BodegomLieneke M Verheijen

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Citations

Mar 1, 2017·The New Phytologist·Colleen M IversenCyrille Violle
Dec 3, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Ethan E ButlerPeter B Reich
Jul 21, 2017·Global Change Biology·Diego AbalosGerlinde B De Deyn
Feb 13, 2018·Scientific Reports·Nima MadaniSteven W Running
Apr 29, 2020·Environmental Science & Technology·Laura SchererPeter M van Bodegom

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