What are leaf functional traits?
Functional traits are a cost-effective tool for gathering information on plants' functions in ecosystems and biotic interactions. These traits typically consist of size-structure traits (such as leaf area), and leaf economic traits (specific leaf area). Plant functional traits of individuals, species, and communities are often documented over small and large spatial extents. But temporal variation in plant functional traits remains understudied. Seasonal variation in plant functional traits raises an important, practical question of how comparable datasets are, considering that large trait datasets often require sampling over extended periods or are gathered from heterogeneous original sources.
What are the main results of the study?
Our findings reveal that functional traits exhibit considerable variation across the 15-week growing season. These temporal variations are influenced by plant growth forms, with distinct patterns observed among forbs, deciduous shrubs and evergreen shrubs. Our analyses show that the ranking of species based on traits is rather well preserved during the peak growing season in the most commonly used traits. Consequently, the timing of sampling has a rather minor impact on the relative trait differences across species as long as the sampling is not conducted in the very beginning and end of the growing season.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
Arctic plants are facing a rapid climate change, leading to shifts in plant functional traits in the Arctic, with potential consequences for biodiversity. Given the short growing season and rapid growth after the snowmelt, Arctic plants may show pronounced seasonal variation in leaf functional traits, and overall, within-species variation can account even up to 70% of the overall variation found in plant communities. All this contributes to Arctic biodiversity found in plants of these extreme environments.
The article has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen
What is geodiversity?
Geodiversity is a concept that explores abiotic diversity, similarly as biodiversity for biotic diversity. Geodiversity refers to the variation in geology (such as rocks, minerals, fossils), geomorphology (landforms, topography, physical processes), soils, and hydrology. Geodiversity includes these geofeatures and their assemblages, structures, systems, and contributions to landscapes. Geodiverse landscapes provide heterogeneous conditions and habitats, supporting high biodiversity.
What are the main results of the study?
Our findings highlight that a geodiverse landscape is often assumed to foster connectivity and climate resilience of biodiversity mainly through resource and niche provisioning. We also find that the quantitative measures of geodiversity used in ecological connectivity modelling often represent simplistic metrics that may overlook important abiotic components that contribute to species persistence and movement under changing conditions. The key challenges hindering a wider use of geodiversity information in connectivity modelling include the limited adoption of the term outside geosciences and the lack of established quantitative metrics of the geodiversity-biodiversity relationship. Addressing these gaps could greatly enhance ecological connectivity assessments through a wider adoption of geodiversity information.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
Nature conservation has shifted towards a climate change adaptation approach in which the expected species range shifts are increasingly considered to mitigate effects of climate change and habitat fragmentation on biodiversity. As part of this, ecological connectivity needs to be ensured to support gene flow and viable populations in the face of changing environmental conditions. This makes it critical to understand which landscape elements facilitate and impede species movement, and here geodiversity can be incorporated into the models to improve ecological connectivity assessments.
The article has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen
What is microclimatic buffering?
Forest canopies regulate the energy exchange between the atmosphere and Earth’s surface, and this creates local climates, in other words: microclimates. Microclimates are shaped by variation in topography, land surface properties, and vegetation cover and structure. Forest canopies can effectively buffer temperature extremes by several degrees when compared to open areas outside forests. This thermal buffering is strongly influenced by forest cover and structure, which is largely shaped by forest management.
What are the main results of the study?
We aimed to quantify what proportion of Finland’s forestry land supports microclimatic buffering. We found that only 17% of forestry land has buffered climatic conditions, whereas, in one-quarter of the land, temperature variation is amplified primarily due to the low canopy cover of young stands. The microclimatic buffering patterns along biogeographical gradients. Forest management can largely impact microclimates, highlighting the great potential of forest management in maintaining stable temperatures via microclimatic buffering.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
Microclimatic buffering can mitigate the effects of global warming on understory species, and for this reason microclimatic buffering is critical for forest species and ecosystem processes as the climate warms. This is because the microclimate warming rate inside forests can be slower compared to the macroclimate warming rate. Therefore, protecting forest ecosystems with buffered microclimate temperatures is crucial for the survival of many forest species and the functioning of forest ecosystems. Overall, prioritizing management practices that preserve canopy cover can help promote buffered microclimates in boreal forests.
The article has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen
Why we need plant data from the Afromontane grasslands of Maloti-Drakensberg, South Africa?
The Afromontane region supports a global biodiversity hotspot with high levels of endemism. These mountain ecosystems have served as biodiversity refugia during periods of past climate variations, but are now under threat from the compounding effects of biological invasions, land-use change, and climate change. Our data provide the first recorded trait data for 47 vascular plant species and more than double the trait data coverage from the Maloti-Drakensberg (106% increase). This study offers insights into plant and ecosystem functioning, provides a baseline for assessing impacts of environmental change, builds local competence, and aligns with similar data from China, Svalbard, Peru, and Norway. This dataset was collected as part of an international Plant Functional Traits Course.
What are the main contents of the dataset?
In 2023, we collected comprehensive trait data in five sites along a 800 m elevation gradient from 2000–2800 m a.s.l. and in a climate warming experiment at 3064 m a.s.l.. This paper reports on 1 038 plant observations, 24 405 aboveground and 94 root trait measurements from 171 vascular plant taxa paired with 11 other datasets reflecting vegetation and structure, leaf and ecosystem carbon and water fluxes, leaf hyperspectral reflectance, and microclimatic and environmental data. This research follows best-practice approaches for open and reproducible research planning, execution, reporting, and management. The experimental design and data collection follows community-approved standards. The data are cleaned and managed using script-based workflows that ensure reproducibility and transparency.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
By making these data available, we aim to contribute towards a better ecological understanding of Afromontane grassland ecosystems and facilitate research on the Maloti-Drakensberg socio-ecological system. The course provided opportunities for local capacity building, contributing to a regional community of practice for southern African mountain research, conservation, and management, including to the Mont-aux-Sources Long-term Social-Ecological Research Site (MaS LTSER) in the northern Maloti-Drakensberg, the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Programme, and local conservation and livelihood creation initiatives such as the proposed indigenous community-led Witsieshoek Community Conservation Area.
The data set has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen
Why plant trait values and species abundances should be jointly modelled?
Plants respond to their surrounding environmental conditions. This response is reflected in their traits, such as height and leaf properties, and all this contributes to within-species variation. Within-species trait variation can play a major role in driving the assembly of plant communities, however, the links between this trait variation and community assembly remain insufficiently understood. More importantly, we have lacked models that could jointly predict and statistically link trait values and species abundances. Such models would be much needed to better understand the complexity of the mechanisms through which within-species trait variation shapes plant communities.
What are the main results of the study?
We extend the joint species distribution modeling (JSDM) framework into the joint species-trait distribution modeling (JSTDM) framework to explicitly link species abundances to phenotypic variation in traits for multiple species simultaneously. We used trait and abundance data of 65 tundra plant species to show how the JSTDM approach (1) estimates the statistical associations among species abundances, species-level traits, and site-level traits, relative to environmental variation; (2) improves predictions on trait variation by using information on species abundances; and (3) generates hypotheses about trait-driven community assembly mechanisms.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
JSTDM allows assessing the interplay between species abundances and traits at the community level, providing the much needed modeling tools to quantify the role of phenotypic trait variation in eco-evolutionary community assembly. We applied JSTDM also for investigating if traits influenced the abundances and richness of the neighboring species. Here, we used Empetrum nigrum as an example species, as it is well known to affect the performance and composition of the neighboring plant communities and its abundance as profoundly increased in northern European tundra as a consequence of rapid climate change.
The study has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen
What is a functional composition of a plant community?
Plant communities consist of individuals and species that occur together. Each individual and species of the community can be quantified based on its functional traits, such as height or leaf area. So, the functional composition of a plant community refers to the variety and abundance of plant species based on their functional traits, rather than just their taxonomic identity (their species names). Functional traits influence how plants grow, survive, and reproduce, and how they interact with their environment, such as nutrients.
What are the main results of the study?
We compared the functional composition of plant communities between two sites in Svalbard. One site was heavily influenced by the nutrient input from a seabird colony that was nesting above the site. We assessed 13 different functional traits and found that plants closest to the colony, were taller and had higher resource-acquisitive trait values, such as larger and thicker leaves and higher leaf nutrient contents. At the site close to the colony, we found different species with different functional traits, and overall, we found a lot of within species variation based on their functional traits.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
Seabird populations are globally declining, and this has been a very rapid and dramatic decline in the Arctic. Declining bird populations affect the marine-derived nutrient input that birds bring from the sea to land. This in turn influences the vegetation at and nearby seabird colonies, and if bird populations continue declining, so will their nutrient inputs. Arctic plants are already showing responses to increasing warming, and one of the key indicators of this are their functional traits, such as plant height. As the climate changes in the Arctic, this will have consequences to plants not only directly through warming, but also through the declining nutrient input from seabirds.
The study has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen
What is microclimate?
Microclimate refers to the local climatic conditions that matter to all organisms from humans to other animals and plants. For instance, in heat waves and storms, animals seek for shade or shelter to accommodate their microclimate preferences. Even in less dramatic settings such as in an office space, the local temperature and moisture conditions really do affect how the office plants and humans live and survive. This is why microclimates are important to measure and there are many ways to do so.
What are the main results of the study?
This article is a review of the most useful ways to measure microclimates. The article explains why, what, how, when, and where to measure microclimates and it also summarises what to consider when analysing and publishing microclimate data. These matters are important to evaluate, because there is no one-solution-fits-all when it comes to measuring microclimates. Microclimates should be always measured considering the specific study object, the study area, and the study question. For instance, an elephant in the savanna and a tiny plant in the tundra are both dependent on the local temperature conditions around them. But the same measurement techniques and scales do not necessarily work on both study objects because the ecology of an elephant and a plant is very different and because the savanna and the tundra are such different ecosystems.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
Biodiversity refers to the diversity of all living things, including for instance genetic variability and the diversity of species and ecosystems. All this biodiversity on Earth is affected by climate change, and measuring microclimates is an important tool in research for understanding how exactly things are responding to climate change. Because after all, all living things are affected by their surrounding conditions, including their microclimates. So, as the overall climate changes, it also changes the microclimates in which all organisms live.
The study has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen