CNR ExploRA

Articolo in rivista, 2023, ENG, 10.1038/s41467-023-39572-5

Leaf-level coordination principles propagate to the ecosystem scale

Gomarasca U., Migliavacca M., Kattge J., Nelson J.A., Niinemets U., Wirth C., Cescatti A., Bahn M., Nair R., Acosta A.T.R., Altaf Arain M., Beloiu M., Black T.A., Bruun H.H., Bucher S.F., Buchmann N., Byun C., Carrara A., Conte A., da Silva A.C., Duveiller G., Fares S., Ibrom A., Knohl A., Komac B., Limousin J.M., Lusk C.H., Mahecha M.G., Martini D., Minden V., Montagnani L., Mori A.S., Onoda Y., Peñuelas J. , Perez-Priego O., Poschlod P., Powell T.L., Reich P.B., Sigut L., van Bodegom P.M., Walther S., Wohlfahrt G., Wright I.I., Reichstein M.

1 Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knöll-Str. 10, 07745 Jena, Germany. 2 European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra 21027 VA, Italy. 3 Chair of Plant and Crop Science, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 1, 51006 Tartu, Estonia. 4 Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany. 5 German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. 6 Universität Innsbruck, Institut für Ökologie, Innsbruck, Austria. 7 Discipline of Botany, School of Natural Sciences Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. 8 Dipartimento di Scienze - Università Roma TRE - V.le Marconi 446, 00146 Roma, Italy. 9 School of Earth, Environment & Society and McMaster Centre for Climate Change, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. 10 Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. 11 Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. 12 Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. 13 Institute of Ecology and Evolution - Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Philosophenweg 16, 07743 Jena, Germany. 14 Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. 15 Department of Biological Sciences, Andong National University, Andong 36729, Republic of Korea. 16 Fundación Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo (CEAM), Paterna, Spain. 17 National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP), Metaponto 75012, Italy. 18 Santa Catarina State University, Agroveterinary Center, Forestry Department, Av Luiz de Camões, 2090, Conta Dinheiro, 88.520-000, Lages, SC, Brazil. 19 National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (ISAFOM), Naples 80055, Italy. 20 Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Environmental Engineering and Resource Management, Bygningstorvet 115, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. 21 Bioclimatology, University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, 37077 Göttingen, Germany. 22 Andorra Research + Innovation; Avinguda Rocafort 21-23, Edifici Molí, 3r pis, AD600 Sant Julià de Lòria, Andorra. 23 CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France. 24 Environmenal Research Institute, University of Waikato, Private Bag, 3105 Hamilton, New Zealand. 25 Remote Sensing Centre for Earth System Research, Leipzig University, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. 26 Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussel, Belgium. 27 Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bolzano, Piazza Università 5, 39100 Bolzano, Italy. 28 Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan. 29 Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Oiwake, Kitashirakawa, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan. 30 CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra, Barcelona 08193 Catalonia, Spain. 31 CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona 08193 Catalonia, Spain. 32 Department of Forestry Engineering, University of Córdoba, Edif. Leonardo da Vinci, Campus de Rabanales s/n, 14071 Córdoba, Spain. 33 Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences - Faculty of Biology and Preclinical Medicine - University of Regensburg, Universitaetsstrasse 31, D-93053 Regensburg, Germany. 34 The Department of Earth and Environmental Systems, The University of the South, Sewanee, TN, USA. 35 Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA. 36 Institute for Global Change Biology, and School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. 37 Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2753, Australia. 38 Department of Matter and Energy Fluxes, Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, B?lidla 986/4a, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic. 39 Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Einsteinweg 2, 2333 CC Leiden, the Netherlands. 40 School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW 2109, Australia.

Fundamental axes of variation in plant traits result from trade-offs between costs and benefits of resource-use strategies at the leaf scale. However, it is unclear whether similar trade-offs propagate to the ecosystem level. Here, we test whether trait correlation patterns predicted by three well-known leaf- and plant-level coordination theories - the leaf economics spectrum, the global spectrum of plant form and function, and the least-cost hypothesis - are also observed between community mean traits and ecosystem processes. We combined ecosystem functional properties from FLUXNET sites, vegetation properties, and community mean plant traits into three corresponding principal component analyses. We find that the leaf economics spectrum (90 sites), the global spectrum of plant form and function (89 sites), and the least-cost hypothesis (82 sites) all propagate at the ecosystem level. However, we also find evidence of additional scale-emergent properties. Evaluating the coordination of ecosystem functional properties may aid the development of more realistic global dynamic vegetation models with critical empirical data, reducing the uncertainty of climate change projections.

Nature communications 14