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Consistent trait–environment relationships within and across tundra plant communities

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 5, pages 458–467 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

A fundamental assumption in trait-based ecology is that relationships between traits and environmental conditions are globally consistent. We use field-quantified microclimate and soil data to explore if trait–environment relationships are generalizable across plant communities and spatial scales. We collected data from 6,720 plots and 217 species across four distinct tundra regions from both hemispheres. We combined these data with over 76,000 database trait records to relate local plant community trait composition to broad gradients of key environmental drivers: soil moisture, soil temperature, soil pH and potential solar radiation. Results revealed strong, consistent trait–environment relationships across Arctic and Antarctic regions. This indicates that the detected relationships are transferable between tundra plant communities also when fine-scale environmental heterogeneity is accounted for, and that variation in local conditions heavily influences both structural and leaf economic traits. Our results strengthen the biological and mechanistic basis for climate change impact predictions of vulnerable high-latitude ecosystems.

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Fig. 1: Data and study design.
Fig. 2: Environmentally explained variation in plant functional trait composition.
Fig. 3: Plant functional trait–environment relationships.

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Data availability

The data are deposited in the Zenodo public repository115 at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4362216.

Code availability

The code is deposited in the Zenodo public repository115 at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4362216.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the past and present members of the BioGeoClimate Modelling Lab and the le Roux Lab for their hard work collecting the field data. We also thank the laboratory personnel at the University of Helsinki and University of Pretoria, as well as the staff at The University Centre in Svalbard, Kangerlussuaq International Support Services, Kilpisjärvi Biological research station and Marion Island field assistants (specifically E. Mostert, N. Mhlongo, J. van Berkel and J. Schoombie). We are also grateful to P. Eidesen for helping with the temperature loggers and E. Pedersen for his help regarding HGAMs. We thank H. Riihimäki for providing the drone image composition, on which the study grid vector is based in Fig. 1. J.K. was funded by the Doctoral Programme in Geosciences at the University of Helsinki, P.N. by the Kone Foundation, M.M. by the National Research Foundation via the SANAP programme and K.H. by the Doctoral Programme in Wildlife Biology Research at the University of Helsinki. The field campaigns were funded by the Academy of Finland (project numbers 307761 and 286950) and the National Research Foundation’s South African National Antarctic Program (unique grant numbers 93077 and 110726). We acknowledge the funding by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture (The FinCEAL Plus BRIDGES coordinated by the Finnish University Partnership for International Development). Permission to carry out fieldwork was granted by the Governor of Svalbard for the high-Arctic site, the Government of Greenland for the low-Arctic site, Metsähallitus for the sub-Arctic site and the Prince Edward Islands Management Committee (permit PEIMC1/2013) for the sub-Antarctic site.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Julia Kemppinen, Pekka Niittynen, Konsta Happonen, Helena Rautakoski & Miska Luoto

  2. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Peter C. le Roux & Mia Momberg

  3. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland

    Juha Aalto

  4. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Brian J. Enquist & Brian Maitner

  5. University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Vigdis Vandvik & Aud H. Halbritter

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  1. Julia Kemppinen
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J.K. conceived the research together with M.L. J.K., P.N., P.C.L.R., J.A. and M.L. designed the study setting. J.K., P.N., P.C.L.R., M.M., J.A. and M.L. performed the field research and H.R. laboratory analyses. J.K., with support from K.H. and B.J.E., analysed the data. J.K. wrote the first version of the paper with support, comments and input from all other authors. All authors revised the paper based on peer review comments.

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Correspondence to Julia Kemppinen.

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Peer review information Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks Sylvia Haider and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1–4, Figs. 1–3 and Data 1–2.

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Supplementary Table

A comprehensive summary and basic statistics of the trait data.

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Kemppinen, J., Niittynen, P., le Roux, P.C. et al. Consistent trait–environment relationships within and across tundra plant communities. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 458–467 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01396-1

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