Plant functional trait change across a warming tundra biome

First author: Anne D. Bjorkman; Affiliations: University of Edinburgh (爱丁堡大学): Edinburgh, UK

Corresponding author: Anne D. Bjorkman

The tundra (冻原) is warming more rapidly than any other biome (生物群落) on Earth, and the potential ramifications (后果) are far-reaching (深远的) because of global feedback effects between vegetation (植被) and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture (湿度) and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature–trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially important influence of changes in water availability on future trait shifts in tundra plant communities. Community height increased with warming across all sites over the past three decades, but other traits lagged (落后) far behind predicted rates of change. Our findings highlight the challenge of using space-for-time substitution to predict the functional consequences of future warming and suggest that functions that are tied closely to plant height will experience the most rapid change. They also reveal the strength with which environmental factors shape biotic communities at the coldest extremes of the planet and will help to improve projections of functional changes in tundra ecosystems with climate warming.

冻原变暖的速度比地球上任何一个生物群落要快，并且由于植被和气候之间的反馈影响，冻原变暖的影响将变得十分深远。对于环境因子如何影响植物结构和功能进一步的理解将有助于预测环境变化对于生态系统功能的影响。本文，作者在117个冻原地点对温度、湿度及7个关键植物功能性状之间联系进行了空间和时间（> 30年）上的研究。空间上温度和性状之间的关联十分紧密，但土壤的湿度对于这些关联的强度和方向有着深刻的影响，说明水供给对于冻原植物群落未来性状的变化有着潜在的重要影响。所有测试地点的植物群落高度在过去的30多年中随着气候变暖都有所增加，但其它的一些性状改变的速率都要低于预测值。作者的研究表明利用空间换时间的方法来预测未来气候变暖的影响具有一定的挑战性，并且与植物高度密切相关的一些功能可能改变得最为迅速。同时，本文的研究揭示了地球极端寒冷地区环境因子改变生物群落的强度，这有助于改善冻原生态系统在气候变暖时功能变化的预测。

通讯：Anne D. Bjorkman（http://annebjorkman.com/about-me/）

个人简介：美国康奈尔大学，生态学和演化生物学学士；加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚大学，生物系，硕士；2015年，加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚大学，生物多样性中心和地理系，博士；德国法兰克福森肯伯格生物多样性和气候研究中心，博士后。

研究方向：自然群落变化模式和进程，尤其是人为干扰对于这些模式和进程的影响。

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0563-7

Journal: Nature

Published date: 26 September, 2018

（P.S. 原文下载：链接:https://pan.baidu.com/s/1qFiSsqwlF_7JjmGMbedfhQ  密码:dmu6）