Which is a better predictor of plant traits: Temperature or precipitation?
METADATA ONLY
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Author / Producer
Date
2014-05-19
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
Citations
Altmetric
METADATA ONLY
Data
Rights / License
Abstract
Question
Are plant traits more closely correlated with mean annual temperature, or with mean annual precipitation?
Location
Global.
Methods
We quantified the strength of the relationships between temperature and precipitation and 21 plant traits from 447,961 species‐site combinations worldwide. We used meta‐analysis to provide an overall answer to our question.
Results
Mean annual temperature was significantly more strongly correlated with plant traits than was mean annual precipitation.
Conclusions
Our study provides support for some of the assumptions of classical vegetation theory, and points to many interesting directions for future research. The relatively low R²values for precipitation might reflect the weak link between mean annual precipitation and the availability of water to plants.
Permanent link
Publication status
published
External links
Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
25 (5)
Pages / Article No.
1167 - 1180
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
Climate; Compound leaves; Dispersal syndrome; Functional traits; Leaf life span; Nitrogen fixation; Photosynthetic pathway; Plant height; Plant life span; Seed mass; Specific leaf area; Spinescence
Organisational unit
03535 - Bugmann, Harald / Bugmann, Harald