Functional Ecology

Journal: Functional Ecology

Abbreviation

Funct. Ecol.

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

ISSN

0269-8463
1365-2435

Show all metadata

Search Results

Publications 1 - 10 of 65

Depth-dependent effects of short-term whole-soil warming on microbial necromass and plant lignin
Tian , Peng; Zhao, Xuechao; Crowther , Thomas W.; et al. (2025)
Functional Ecology
The changes in the origins and storage of soil organic carbon (SOC) under a warming climate are closely related to SOC decomposition and the feedbacks to climate change. Yet, the responses of plant- and microbial-derived carbon (C) to warming and their depth dependence remain unclear. In this study, using a field whole-soil warming experiment (+4°C, 80 cm depth) in a subtropical forest, the short-term (13 months) impacts on plant- and microbial-derived SOC constituents across depth were investigated. Lignin phenols and amino sugars were utilized to indicate plant lignin and microbial necromass, respectively. Our findings indicate that lignin phenol content declined with soil depth, while its degradation extent increased. Combined with constrained nutrient availability and alleviated microbial C limitation, these factors collectively controlled the depth-dependent restriction on microbial necromass C concentration. Warming decreased lignin phenol content by 31.8% and increased bacterial necromass C by 81.3% in topsoil (0–20 cm). Concentration of fungal necromass C was promoted by 15.7%–91.5% under warming across the subsoil layers (20–80 cm), while lignin phenol content remained unchanged. The warming effects on SOC constituents were primarily driven by microbial biomass C in topsoil, whereas in subsoil, they were positively associated with substrate availability, including soil ammonium and dissolved organic C. Overall, this study suggests that the composition of SOC may have changed even if the total content remains stable under climate warming, with implications for the prediction of soil C dynamics in future. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Mammalian herbivores affect leafhoppers associated with specific plant functional types at different timescales
Vandegehuchte, Martijn L.; Trivellone, Valeria; Schütz, Martin; et al. (2018)
Functional Ecology
Partitioning net interactions among plants along altitudinal gradients to study community responses to climate change
Michalet, Richard; Schöb, Christian; Lortie, Christopher J.; et al. (2014)
Functional Ecology
Altitudinal gradients provide a useful space-for-time substitution to examine the capacity for plant competition and facilitation to mediate responses to climate change. Decomposing net interactions into their facilitative and competitive components, and quantifying the performance of plants with and without neighbours along altitudinal gradients, may prove particularly informative in understanding the mechanisms behind plant responses to environmental change. To decouple the inherent responses of species to climate from the responses of plant-plant interactions to climate, we conducted a meta-analysis. Using data from 16 alpine experiments, we tested if changes in net interactions along altitudinal gradients were due to a change in the performance of target species without neighbours (i.e. environmental severity effects only) or with neighbours (neighbour trait mediated effects). There was a global shift from competition to facilitation with increasing altitude driven by both environmental severity and neighbour trait effects. However, this global pattern was strongly influenced by the high number of studies in mesic climates and driven by competition at low altitude in temperate climates (neighbour trait effect), and facilitation at high altitude in arctic and temperate climates (environmental severity effect). In Mediterranean systems, there was no significant effect of competition, and facilitation increased with decreasing altitude. Changes in facilitation with altitude could not unambiguously be attributed to either neighbour trait effects or environmental severity effects, probably because of the opposing stress gradients of cold and aridity in dry environments. Partitioning net interactions along altitudinal gradients led to the prediction that climate change should decrease the importance of facilitation in mesic alpine communities, which might in turn exacerbate the negative effects of climate change in these regions. In xeric climates, the importance of facilitation by drought-tolerant species should increase at low altitudes which should mitigate the negative effect of climate change. However, the importance of facilitation by cold-tolerant species at high altitudes may decrease and exacerbate the effects of climate change. © 2013 The Authors. Functional Ecology © 2013 British Ecological Society.
Litter diversity, fungal decomposers and litter decomposition under simulated stream intermittency
Bruder, Andreas; Chauvet, Eric; Gessner, Mark O. (2011)
Functional Ecology
A key floral scent component (β-trans-bergamotene) drives pollinator preferences independently of pollen rewards in seep monkeyflower
Haber, Ariela I.; Sims, James W.; Mescher, Mark C.; et al. (2019)
Functional Ecology
Eco-physiological and morphological traits explain alpine plant species' response to warming
Visakorpi, Kristiina; Block, Sebastián; Pellissier, Loïc; et al. (2023)
Functional Ecology
Understanding the traits mediating species' responses to climate change is a cornerstone for predicting future community composition and ecosystem function. Although species' eco-physiological properties determine their response to environmental change, most trait-based studies focus on a small subset of easily measured morphological traits as proxies for physiology. This choice may limit our ability to predict the impacts of climate change on species' demography, and obscure the underlying mechanisms. We conducted a transplantation experiment along a 1000-m elevation gradient in the Alps to quantify the degree to which changes in plant abundance due to climate warming were predicted by eco-physiological performance versus common morphological traits. Physiological measurements revealed that warming favoured species with a conservative leaf-level water use strategy whereas species whose leaf-level water use was more ‘wasteful’ were more likely to suffer from the warmer and drier climate. Nevertheless, the predictive power of physiological traits did not exceed that of morphological traits. Our results, therefore, show that while easily measured morphological traits can successfully predict plant abundance responses to climate, eco-physiological approaches are needed to understand the underlying mechanism.
A petiole-galling insect herbivore decelerates leaf lamina litter decomposition rates
Frost, Christopher J.; Dean, Jennifer M.; Smyers, Erica C.; et al. (2012)
Functional Ecology
Competitive interactions between two meadow grasses under nitrogen and phosphorus limitation
Venterink, Harry Olde; Güsewell, Sabine (2010)
Functional Ecology
Experimental warming increases the vulnerability of high-elevation plant populations to a specialist herbivore
Buckley, James; Widmer, Alex; Mescher, Mark C.; et al. (2023)
Functional Ecology
Ongoing climate change may impact alpine plant populations via both direct effects of increased temperature and climate-driven changes in interactions between plants and other organisms, such as insect herbivores. Rates of herbivory in high-elevation environments are predicted to increase with warmer temperatures, which may also lead to changes in morphological and physiological traits that influence plant resistance. Yet, we currently know little about how temperature-mediated changes in traits will impact alpine plant vulnerability to herbivores, as well as the extent to which populations from high-elevation environments might need to rapidly adapt to increasing herbivore pressure with rising temperatures.We assessed the effect of experimental warming on the relative vulnerability of populations of the alpine plant Arabis alpina from different elevations to a specialist herbivore. Herbivore performance was measured on plants from nine populations grown in climate chambers at two temperatures, representing low (warm) and high (cold) elevations. We also measured changes in putative drivers of performance: plant phenological, chemical and defence traits. Assuming populations would be adapted to local climates and levels of herbivory, we predicted that low-elevation populations would be more resistant to herbivores under warmer temperatures than high-elevation populations.We found reduced performance of a specialist herbivore on A. alpina grown under warm rather than cold conditions, though this effect varied with elevation. Larvae grew faster on high-elevation populations than low-elevation populations when grown under warm temperatures, whereas similar growth rates were observed for plants grown under colder temperatures, consistent with plant adaptation to the lower existing herbivore pressure in cold, high-elevation environments. Regression analyses suggested that polar metabolite variation explained more variance in larval performance than changes in defensive glucosinolates or morphological traits.Our results suggest that although physiological responses to warming may increase the resistance of cold-adapted plants to herbivory, populations from different elevations may differ in their interactions with herbivores under climate warming. Without genetic adaptation, existing physiological responses of high-elevation populations to warmer temperatures may leave these populations vulnerable to the increases in herbivore pressure predicted under climate change.Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Resistance of plant–plant networks to biodiversity loss and secondary extinctions following simulated environmental changes
Losapio, Gianalberto; Schöb, Christian (2017)
Functional Ecology
Plant interactions are fundamental processes for structuring plant communities and are an important mechanism governing the response of plant species and communities to environmental changes. Thus, understanding the role played by the interaction network in modulating the impact of environmental changes on plant community composition and diversity is crucial. Here, we aimed to develop a new analytical and conceptual framework to evaluate the responses of plant communities to environmental changes. This framework uses functional traits as sensitivity measures for simulated environmental changes and assesses the consequences of microhabitat loss. We show here its application to an alpine plant community where we recorded functional traits [specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC)] of all plants associated with three foundation species or the surrounding open areas. We then simulated primary species loss based on different scenarios of environmental change and explored community persistence to the loss of foundation species. Generally, plant community responses differed among environmental change scenarios. In a scenario of increasing drought alone (i.e. species with lower LDMC were lost first) or increasing drought with increasing temperature (i.e. species with lower LDMC and higher SLA were lost first), the plant community resisted because drought-tolerant foundation species tolerated those deteriorating conditions. However, in scenarios with increasing nitrogen input (i.e. species having lower SLA were lost earlier), foundation species accelerated species loss due to their early primary extinctions and the corresponding secondary extinctions of species associated to their microhabitat. The resistance of a plant community depends on the driver of environmental change, meaning that the prediction of the fate of this system is depending on the knowledge of the main driver of environmental change. Our framework provides a mechanistic understanding of an ecosystem response to such environmental changes thanks to the integration of biology-informed criteria of species sensitivities to environmental factors into a network of interacting species. A lay summary is available for this article. © 2017 The Authors. Functional Ecology © 2017 British Ecological Society

Publications 1 - 10 of 65

Journal: Functional Ecology

Abbreviation

Publisher

Journal Volumes

ISSN

Description

Filters

Search Results