Plant community structure and nitrogen inputs modulate the climate signal on leaf traits

Benjamin Borgy; Cyrille Violle; Philippe Choler; Pierre Denelle; François Munoz; Jens Kattge; Sandra Lavorel; Jessy Loranger; Bernard Amiaud; Michael Bahn; Peter M. van Bodegom; Henry Brisse; Guilhem Debarros; Sylvain Diquelou; Sophie Gachet; Claudy Jolivet; Servane Lemauviel-Lavenant; Alexis Mikolajczak; Jean Olivier; Jenny Ordoñez; Patrice de Ruffray; Nicolas Viovy; Eric Garnier

doi:10.1111/geb.12623

Plant community structure and nitrogen inputs modulate the climate signal on leaf traits

Benjamin Borgy, Cyrille Violle, Philippe Choler, Pierre Denelle, François Munoz, Jens Kattge, Sandra Lavorel, Jessy Loranger, Bernard Amiaud, Michael Bahn, Peter M. van Bodegom, Henry Brisse, Guilhem Debarros, Sylvain Diquelou, Sophie Gachet, Claudy Jolivet, Servane Lemauviel-Lavenant, Alexis Mikolajczak, Jean Olivier, Jenny OrdoñezPatrice de Ruffray, Nicolas Viovy, Eric Garnier^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Aim: Leaf traits strongly impact biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. Understanding leaf trait variation along environmental gradients is thus essential to improve the representation of vegetation in Earth system models. Our aims were to quantify relationships between leaf traits and climate in permanent grasslands at a biogeographical scale and to test whether these relationships were sensitive to (a) the level of nitrogen inputs and (b) the inclusion of information pertaining to plant community organization. Location: Permanent grasslands throughout France. Methods: We combined existing datasets on climate, soil, nitrogen inputs (fertilization and deposition), species composition and four traits, namely specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content and leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, for 15,865 French permanent grasslands. Trait–climate relationships were tested using the following four climatic variables available across 1,833 pixels (5 km × 5 km): mean annual temperature (MAT) and precipitation (MAP), and two indices accounting for the length of the growing season. We compared these relationships at the pixel level using either using community-level or species’ trait means. Results: Our findings were as follows: (a) leaf traits related to plant nutrient economy shift consistently along a gradient of growing season length accounting for temperature and soil water limitations of plant growth (GSL_tw); (b) weighting leaf traits by species abundance in local communities is pivotal to capture leaf trait–environment relationships correctly at a biogeographical scale; and (c) the relationships between traits and GSL_tw weaken for grasslands with a high nitrogen input. Main conclusions: The effects of climate on plant communities are better described using composite descriptors than coarse variables such as MAT or MAP, but appear weaker for high-nitrogen grasslands. Using information at the community level tends to strengthen trait–climate relationships. The interplay of land management, community assembly and bioclimate appears crucial to the prediction of leaf trait variations and their effects on biogeochemical cycles.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1138-1152
Number of pages	15
Journal	Global Ecology and Biogeography
Volume	26
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12623
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2017

Funding

Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig; European Research Council, Grant/ Award Number: ERC-StG-2014-639706-CONSTRAINTS This research is supported by the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB; www.fondationbiodiversite.fr) in the context of the CESAB (CEntre de Synthèse et d'Analyse sur la Biodiversité) project ‘Assembling, analysing and sharing data on plant functional diversity to understand the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: a case study with French Permanent Grasslands’ (DIV-GRASS) and by the TRY initiative on plant traits (http://www.try-db. org). The TRY initiative and database are hosted at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany, and currently supported by DIVERSITAS/Future Earth and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. C.V. and P.D. were supported by the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant Project ‘Ecophysiological and biophysical constraints on domestication in crop plants’ (Grant ERC-StG-2014–639706-CONSTRAINTS).

Funders	Funder number
French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	639706
European Research Council	ERC-StG-2014–639706-CONSTRAINTS
iDiv

Keywords

community functional structure
environmental gradients
fertilization
functional biogeography
functional diversity
growing season length
land management
permanent grasslands
plant traits

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Borgy, B., Violle, C., Choler, P., Denelle, P., Munoz, F., Kattge, J., Lavorel, S., Loranger, J., Amiaud, B., Bahn, M., van Bodegom, P. M., Brisse, H., Debarros, G., Diquelou, S., Gachet, S., Jolivet, C., Lemauviel-Lavenant, S., Mikolajczak, A., Olivier, J., ... Garnier, E. (2017). Plant community structure and nitrogen inputs modulate the climate signal on leaf traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 26(10), 1138-1152. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12623

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title = "Plant community structure and nitrogen inputs modulate the climate signal on leaf traits",

abstract = "Aim: Leaf traits strongly impact biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. Understanding leaf trait variation along environmental gradients is thus essential to improve the representation of vegetation in Earth system models. Our aims were to quantify relationships between leaf traits and climate in permanent grasslands at a biogeographical scale and to test whether these relationships were sensitive to (a) the level of nitrogen inputs and (b) the inclusion of information pertaining to plant community organization. Location: Permanent grasslands throughout France. Methods: We combined existing datasets on climate, soil, nitrogen inputs (fertilization and deposition), species composition and four traits, namely specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content and leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, for 15,865 French permanent grasslands. Trait–climate relationships were tested using the following four climatic variables available across 1,833 pixels (5 km × 5 km): mean annual temperature (MAT) and precipitation (MAP), and two indices accounting for the length of the growing season. We compared these relationships at the pixel level using either using community-level or species{\textquoteright} trait means. Results: Our findings were as follows: (a) leaf traits related to plant nutrient economy shift consistently along a gradient of growing season length accounting for temperature and soil water limitations of plant growth (GSLtw); (b) weighting leaf traits by species abundance in local communities is pivotal to capture leaf trait–environment relationships correctly at a biogeographical scale; and (c) the relationships between traits and GSLtw weaken for grasslands with a high nitrogen input. Main conclusions: The effects of climate on plant communities are better described using composite descriptors than coarse variables such as MAT or MAP, but appear weaker for high-nitrogen grasslands. Using information at the community level tends to strengthen trait–climate relationships. The interplay of land management, community assembly and bioclimate appears crucial to the prediction of leaf trait variations and their effects on biogeochemical cycles.",

keywords = "community functional structure, environmental gradients, fertilization, functional biogeography, functional diversity, growing season length, land management, permanent grasslands, plant traits",

author = "Benjamin Borgy and Cyrille Violle and Philippe Choler and Pierre Denelle and Fran{\c c}ois Munoz and Jens Kattge and Sandra Lavorel and Jessy Loranger and Bernard Amiaud and Michael Bahn and {van Bodegom}, {Peter M.} and Henry Brisse and Guilhem Debarros and Sylvain Diquelou and Sophie Gachet and Claudy Jolivet and Servane Lemauviel-Lavenant and Alexis Mikolajczak and Jean Olivier and Jenny Ordo{\~n}ez and {de Ruffray}, Patrice and Nicolas Viovy and Eric Garnier",

year = "2017",

month = oct,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1111/geb.12623",

language = "English",

volume = "26",

pages = "1138--1152",

journal = "Global Ecology and Biogeography",

issn = "1466-822X",

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}

Borgy, B, Violle, C, Choler, P, Denelle, P, Munoz, F, Kattge, J, Lavorel, S, Loranger, J, Amiaud, B, Bahn, M, van Bodegom, PM, Brisse, H, Debarros, G, Diquelou, S, Gachet, S, Jolivet, C, Lemauviel-Lavenant, S, Mikolajczak, A, Olivier, J, Ordoñez, J, de Ruffray, P, Viovy, N & Garnier, E 2017, 'Plant community structure and nitrogen inputs modulate the climate signal on leaf traits', Global Ecology and Biogeography, vol. 26, no. 10, pp. 1138-1152. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12623

TY - JOUR

T1 - Plant community structure and nitrogen inputs modulate the climate signal on leaf traits

AU - Borgy, Benjamin

AU - Violle, Cyrille

AU - Choler, Philippe

AU - Denelle, Pierre

AU - Munoz, François

AU - Kattge, Jens

AU - Lavorel, Sandra

AU - Loranger, Jessy

AU - Amiaud, Bernard

AU - Bahn, Michael

AU - van Bodegom, Peter M.

AU - Brisse, Henry

AU - Debarros, Guilhem

AU - Diquelou, Sylvain

AU - Gachet, Sophie

AU - Jolivet, Claudy

AU - Lemauviel-Lavenant, Servane

AU - Mikolajczak, Alexis

AU - Olivier, Jean

AU - Ordoñez, Jenny

AU - de Ruffray, Patrice

AU - Viovy, Nicolas

AU - Garnier, Eric

PY - 2017/10/1

Y1 - 2017/10/1

N2 - Aim: Leaf traits strongly impact biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. Understanding leaf trait variation along environmental gradients is thus essential to improve the representation of vegetation in Earth system models. Our aims were to quantify relationships between leaf traits and climate in permanent grasslands at a biogeographical scale and to test whether these relationships were sensitive to (a) the level of nitrogen inputs and (b) the inclusion of information pertaining to plant community organization. Location: Permanent grasslands throughout France. Methods: We combined existing datasets on climate, soil, nitrogen inputs (fertilization and deposition), species composition and four traits, namely specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content and leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, for 15,865 French permanent grasslands. Trait–climate relationships were tested using the following four climatic variables available across 1,833 pixels (5 km × 5 km): mean annual temperature (MAT) and precipitation (MAP), and two indices accounting for the length of the growing season. We compared these relationships at the pixel level using either using community-level or species’ trait means. Results: Our findings were as follows: (a) leaf traits related to plant nutrient economy shift consistently along a gradient of growing season length accounting for temperature and soil water limitations of plant growth (GSLtw); (b) weighting leaf traits by species abundance in local communities is pivotal to capture leaf trait–environment relationships correctly at a biogeographical scale; and (c) the relationships between traits and GSLtw weaken for grasslands with a high nitrogen input. Main conclusions: The effects of climate on plant communities are better described using composite descriptors than coarse variables such as MAT or MAP, but appear weaker for high-nitrogen grasslands. Using information at the community level tends to strengthen trait–climate relationships. The interplay of land management, community assembly and bioclimate appears crucial to the prediction of leaf trait variations and their effects on biogeochemical cycles.

AB - Aim: Leaf traits strongly impact biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. Understanding leaf trait variation along environmental gradients is thus essential to improve the representation of vegetation in Earth system models. Our aims were to quantify relationships between leaf traits and climate in permanent grasslands at a biogeographical scale and to test whether these relationships were sensitive to (a) the level of nitrogen inputs and (b) the inclusion of information pertaining to plant community organization. Location: Permanent grasslands throughout France. Methods: We combined existing datasets on climate, soil, nitrogen inputs (fertilization and deposition), species composition and four traits, namely specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content and leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, for 15,865 French permanent grasslands. Trait–climate relationships were tested using the following four climatic variables available across 1,833 pixels (5 km × 5 km): mean annual temperature (MAT) and precipitation (MAP), and two indices accounting for the length of the growing season. We compared these relationships at the pixel level using either using community-level or species’ trait means. Results: Our findings were as follows: (a) leaf traits related to plant nutrient economy shift consistently along a gradient of growing season length accounting for temperature and soil water limitations of plant growth (GSLtw); (b) weighting leaf traits by species abundance in local communities is pivotal to capture leaf trait–environment relationships correctly at a biogeographical scale; and (c) the relationships between traits and GSLtw weaken for grasslands with a high nitrogen input. Main conclusions: The effects of climate on plant communities are better described using composite descriptors than coarse variables such as MAT or MAP, but appear weaker for high-nitrogen grasslands. Using information at the community level tends to strengthen trait–climate relationships. The interplay of land management, community assembly and bioclimate appears crucial to the prediction of leaf trait variations and their effects on biogeochemical cycles.

KW - community functional structure

KW - environmental gradients

KW - fertilization

KW - functional biogeography

KW - functional diversity

KW - growing season length

KW - land management

KW - permanent grasslands

KW - plant traits

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U2 - 10.1111/geb.12623

DO - 10.1111/geb.12623

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SN - 1466-822X

VL - 26

SP - 1138

EP - 1152

JO - Global Ecology and Biogeography

JF - Global Ecology and Biogeography

IS - 10

ER -

Plant community structure and nitrogen inputs modulate the climate signal on leaf traits

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