Individual fitness is decoupled from coarse‐scale probability of occurrence in North American trees

Habitat suitability estimated with probability of occurrence in species distribution models (SDMs) is used in conservation to identify geographic areas that are most likely to harbor individuals of interest. In theory, probability of occurrence is coupled with individual fitness so that individuals have higher fitness at the centre of their species environmental niche than at the edges, which we here define as 'fitness‐centre' hypothesis. However, such relationship is uncertain and has been rarely tested across multiple species. Here, we quantified the relationship between coarse‐scale probability of occurrence projected with SDMs and individual fitness in 66 tree species native of North America. We used 1) field data of individuals' growth rate (height and diameter standardized by age) available from the United States Forest Inventory Analysis plots; and 2) common garden data collected from 23 studies reporting individual growth rate, survival, height and diameter of individuals originated from different provenances in United States and Canada. We show 'fitness–centre' relationships are rare, with only 12% and 11% of cases showing a significant positive correlation for field and common garden data, respectively. Furthermore, we found the 'fitness–centre' relationship is not affected by the precision of the SDMs and it does not depend upon dispersal ability and climatic breath of the species. Thus, although the 'fitness–centre' relationship is supported by theory, it does not hold true in nearly any species. Because individual fitness plays a relevant role in buffering local extinction and range contraction following climatic changes and biotic invasions, our results encourage conservationists not to assume the 'fitness–centre' relationship when modelling species distribution

Global patterns of intraspecific leaf trait responses to elevation

Elevational gradients are often used to quantify how traits of plant species respond to abiotic and biotic environmental variations. Yet, such analyses are frequently restricted spatially and applied along single slopes or mountain ranges. Since we know little on the response of intraspecific leaf traits to elevation across the globe, we here perform a global meta-analysis of leaf traits in 109 plant species located in 4 continents and reported in 71 studies published between 1983 and 2018. We quantified the intraspecific change in seven morpho-ecophysiological leaf traits along global elevational gradients: specific leaf area (SLA), leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf area (LA), nitrogen concentration per unit of area (Narea), nitrogen concentration per unit mass (Nmass), phosphorous concentration per unit mass (Pmass) and carbon isotope composition (delta C-13). We found LMA, Narea, Nmass and delta C-13 to significantly increase and SLA to decrease with increasing elevation. Conversely, LA and Pmass showed no significant pattern with elevation worldwide. We found significantly larger increase in Narea, Nmass, Pmass and delta C-13 with elevation in warmer regions. Larger responses to increasing elevation were apparent for SLA of herbaceous compared to woody species, but not for the other traits. Finally, we also detected evidences of covariation across morphological and physiological traits within the same elevational gradient. In sum, we demonstrate that there are common cross-species patterns of intraspecific leaf trait variation across elevational gradients worldwide. Irrespective of whether such variation is genetically determined via local adaptation or attributed to phenotypic plasticity, the leaf trait patterns quantified here suggest that plant species are adapted to live on a range of temperature conditions. Since the distribution of mountain biota is predominantly shifting upslope in response to changes in environmental conditions, our results are important to further our understanding of how plants species of mountain ecosystems adapt to global environmental change

Climate-trait relationships exhibit strong habitat specificity in plant communities across Europe

Ecological theory predicts close relationships between macroclimate and functional traits. Yet, global climatic gradients correlate only weakly with the trait composition of local plant communities, suggesting that important factors have been ignored. Here, we investigate the consistency of climate-trait relationships for plant communities in European habitats. Assuming that local factors are better accounted for in more narrowly defined habitats, we assigned > 300,000 vegetation plots to hierarchically classified habitats and modelled the effects of climate on the community-weighted means of four key functional traits using generalized additive models. We found that the predictive power of climate increased from broadly to narrowly defined habitats for specific leaf area and root length, but not for plant height and seed mass. Although macroclimate generally predicted the distribution of all traits, its effects varied, with habitat-specificity increasing toward more narrowly defined habitats. We conclude that macroclimate is an important determinant of terrestrial plant communities, but future predictions of climatic effects must consider how habitats are defined

R codes for "Plant functional traits couple with range size and shape in European trees" (Midolo, 2024)

Supplementary R codes for:Midolo, G. (2024) Plant functional traits couple with range size and shape in European trees. Global Ecology and Biogeography https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13838Author: Gabriele Midolo11: Department of Spatial Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Praha-Suchdol, Czech RepublicORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1316-2546e-mail: gabriele.midolo [at] gmail [dot] comContent description:getRLI.function.R: This code contains the function to calculate range shape (elongation) using Range Linearity Index (RLI).Related references:Graves, G. R. (1988). Linearity of Geographic Range and Its Possible Effect on the Population Structure of Andean Birds. The Auk, 105(1), 47–52. https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/105.1.47Pigot, A. L., Owens, I. P. F., & Orme, C. D. L. (2010). The environmental limits to geographic range expansion in birds. Ecology Letters, 13(6), 705–715. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01462.xrun.MRPMM.R: A reproducible example on how to run multi-response phylogenetic mixed effect models (MR-PMMs).Related references:Halliwell, B. & Yates, L. A. (2024) Multi-Response Phylogenetic Mixed Models. GitHub. https://benjamin-halliwell.github.io/MR-PMM/MR-PMM_tutorial.html [Accessed on March 2024]Halliwell, B., Yates, L. A., & Holland, B. R. (2022). Multi-Response Phylogenetic Mixed Models: Concepts and Application. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.13.520338Housworth, E. A., Martins, E. P., & Lynch, M. (2004). The Phylogenetic Mixed Model. The American Naturalist, 163(1), 84–96. https://doi.org/10.1086/380570Westoby, M., Yates, L., Holland, B., & Halliwell, B. (2023). Phylogenetically conservative trait correlation: Quantification and interpretation. Journal of Ecology, 111(10), 2105-2117 https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.1415</p

Land use and water availability drive community-level plant functional diversity of grasslands along a temperature gradient in the Swiss Alps

Functional traits of mountain grassland communities strongly depend upon temperature variation along elevational gradients. However, little is known to what degree the direction of such trait-temperature relationships is shaped by other environmental factors or land-use types. Here, we investigated context-dependent patterns of plant functional trait variation in alpine grassland communities. Specifically, we tested whether temperature (degree-days) variation along an elevational gradient, interacts with water availability, soil properties and land-use type to moderate such patterns. We used cover-abundance and plant-trait data from 236 grassland relevés of the Swiss Alps along an elevational range of 500–2400 m a.s.l. with plant traits being specific leaf area (L), seed releasing height (H) and seed mass (S). We used indices capturing different dimensions of plant functional diversity as response variables, i.e. community weighted mean (CWM), trait range (TR) and functional dispersion (FDis). Land-use type and water availability interacted significantly with degree-days determining the responses of multiple plant traits community attributes. Specific leaf area (CWML) and seed releasing height (CWMH) increased with temperature in meadows and pastures, while no significant trend was detected in fallows. In meadows, seed mass (CWMS) increased and was at the same time less constrained (higher TRS) with increasing temperature. In pastures and fallows, by contrast, no seed trait-temperature trends were detected. In addition, water availability interacted with increasing temperature affecting functional dispersion: FDisL decreased only in sites with higher site water balance and TRS and FDisS increased in sites with low mean summer precipitation. Our findings suggest that functional diversity of grasslands might respond to climate warming with strong ecological differences depending on land-use types and water availability. Based on our results, managed meadows and pastures most likely change in direction to species with more acquisitive strategies, whereas in fallows, no specific trajectory of change is expected

Surface Tradeoffs and Elevational Shifts at the Largest Italian Glacier: A Thirty-Years Time Series of Remotely-Sensed Images

Abstract: Biodiversity loss occurring in mountain ecosystems calls for integrative approaches to improve monitoring processes in the face of human-induced changes. With a combination of vegetation and remotely-sensed time series data, we quantitatively identify the responses of land- cover types and their associated vegetation between 1987 and 2016. Fuzzy clustering of 11 Landsat images was used to identify main land-cover types. Vegetation belts corresponding to such land- cover types were identified by using species indicator analysis performed on 80 vegetation plots. A post-classification evaluation of trends, magnitude, and elevational shifts was done using fuzzy membership values as a proxy of the occupied surfaces by land-cover types. Our findings show that forests and scrublands expanded upward as much as the glacier retreated, i.e., by 24% and 23% since 1987, respectively. While lower alpine grassland shifted upward, the upper alpine grassland lost 10% of its originally occupied surface showing no elevational shift. Moreover, an increase of suitable sites for the expansion of the subnival vegetation belt has been observed, due to the increasing availability of new ice-free areas. The consistent findings suggest a general expansion of forest and scrubland to the detriment of alpine grasslands, which in turn are shifting upwards or declining in area. In conclusion, alpine grasslands need urgent and appropriate monitoring processes ranging from the species to the landscape level that integrates remotely-sensed and field data

Afrika i adertonhundratalets Gamlakarleby : om kolonialism, slavhandel och motstånd

Essän diskuterar en liten samling reseskildringar om Afrika som ingår i Läsesällskapets i Gamlakarleby bibliotek i Karleby, Finland. Böckerna insamlades under tidigt adertonhundratal under en tid då denna stad var en av Nordens främsta och rikaste hamnstäder. Hypotesen är att detta faktum även reflekterar det stora intresset för en värld även utanför Europa. Essän diskuterar två förhållningssätt som samlingen gestaltar: en kolonial och 'civilisatorisk' och en annan kolonialkritisk. Den förra synen representeras av översättaren Samuel Ödmann och den senare av riksdagsmannen och kaplanen Anders Chydenius, en av Läsesällskapets grundare

Seed dispersal distance classes and dispersal modes for the European flora

Motivation Although dispersal ability is one of the key features determining the spatial dynamics of plant populations and the structure of plant communities, it is also one of the traits for which we still lack data for most species. We compiled a comprehensive dataset of seed dispersal distance classes and predominant dispersal modes for most European vascular plants. Our seed dispersal dataset can be used in functional biogeography, dynamic vegetation modelling and ecological studies at local to continental scales.Main Types of Variables Contained Species were classified into seven ordered classes with similar dispersal distances estimated based on the predominant dispersal mode, the morphology of dispersal units (diaspores or propagules), life form, plant height, seed mass, habitat and known dispersal by humans. We evaluated our results by comparing them with dispersal distances calculated using the ‘dispeRsal’ function in R. Spatial Location Europe.Time Period Present.Major Taxa and Level of Measurement The seed dispersal dataset contains information on dispersal distance classes and the predominant dispersal mode for 10,327 most frequent and locally dominant European vascular plant species.Software Format Data are available in .csv format

Ellenberg-type indicator values for European vascular plant species

Aims: Ellenberg-type indicator values are expert-based rankings of plant species according to their ecological optima on main environmental gradients. Here we extend the indicator-value system proposed by Heinz Ellenberg and co-authors for Central Europe by incorporating other systems of Ellenberg-type indicator values (i.e., those using scales compatible with Ellenberg values) developed for other European regions. Our aim is to create a harmonized data set of Ellenberg-type indicator values applicable at the European scale. Methods: We collected European data sets of indicator values for vascular plants and selected 13 data sets that used the nine-, ten-or twelve-degree scales defined by Ellenberg for light, temperature, moisture, reaction, nutrients and salinity. We compared these values with the original Ellenberg values and used those that showed consistent trends in regression slope and coefficient of determination. We calculated the average value for each combination of species and indicator values from these data sets. Based on species’ co-occurrences in European vegetation plots, we also calculated new values for species that were not assigned an indicator value. Results: We provide a new data set of Ellenberg-type indicator values for 8908 European vascular plant species (8168 for light, 7400 for temperature, 8030 for moisture, 7282 for reaction, 7193 for nutrients, and 7507 for salinity), of which 398 species have been newly assigned to at least one indicator value. Conclusions: The newly introduced indicator values are compatible with the original Ellenberg values. They can be used for large-scale studies of the European flora and vegetation or for gap-filling in regional data sets. The European indicator values and the original and taxonomically harmonized regional data sets of Ellenberg-type indicator values are available in the Supporting Information and the Zenodo repository.Technology Agency of the Czech RepublicSwiss National Science Foundation SNFGerman Research FoundationSlovenian Research AgencyGobierno VascoDepto. de Farmacología, Farmacognosia y BotánicaFac. de FarmaciaTRUEpu