Refine
Has Fulltext
- no (13)
Document Type
- Article (13)
Language
- English (13)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (13)
Keywords
- climate change (3)
- Climate change (2)
- Global environmental change (2)
- Milium effusum (2)
- latitude (2)
- local adaptation (2)
- temperature (2)
- Above-ground (1)
- Agricultural landscapes (1)
- Anemone nemorosa (1)
- Below-ground (1)
- Beta diversity (1)
- Biogeography (1)
- Canopy (1)
- Collection date (1)
- Community ecology (1)
- Disturbance (1)
- Diversity (1)
- Ellenberg indicator values (1)
- Forest understorey (1)
- Fragmentation (1)
- Functional trait diversity (1)
- Intraspecific variation (1)
- Landscape connectivity (1)
- Light availability (1)
- Macroclimatic gradient (1)
- Multi-scale analysis (1)
- NWEurope (1)
- Phenotypic plasticity (1)
- Plant community (1)
- Species co-existence (1)
- Stachys sylvatica (1)
- Storage effect (1)
- ancient forest (1)
- colonization capacity (1)
- common garden (1)
- common garden experiment (1)
- detrended correspondence analyses (1)
- forest herbs (1)
- forest understorey (1)
- forest understorey plant species (1)
- functional traits (1)
- growth chambers (1)
- habitat fragmentation (1)
- habitat loss (1)
- interspecific variation (1)
- latitudinal gradient (1)
- life-history traits (1)
- meta-analysis (1)
- niche optimum (1)
- niche width (1)
- nutrient stoichiometry (1)
- open-top chambers (1)
- phenotypic plasticity (1)
- plant community (1)
- plant population and community dynamics (1)
- plant regeneration (1)
- plant-climate interaction (1)
- pot experiment (1)
- range edges (1)
- realized niche (1)
- recruitment (1)
- secondary succession (1)
- seed longevity (1)
- seed nitrogen (1)
- seed predation (1)
- seed production (1)
- seed provisioning (1)
- seedling establishment (1)
- sexual reproduction (1)
- temperate deciduous forest (1)
- wood anemone (1)
Institute
1. Worldwide, the floristic composition of temperate forests bears the imprint of past land use for decades to centuries as forests regrow on agricultural land. Many species, however, display significant interregional variation in their ability to (re)colonize post-agricultural forests. This variation in colonization across regions and the underlying factors remain largely unexplored.
2. We compiled data on 90 species and 812 species x study combinations from 18 studies across Europe that determined species' distribution patterns in ancient (i.e. continuously forested since the first available land use maps) and post-agricultural forests. The recovery rate (RR) of species in each landscape was quantified as the log-response ratio of the percentage occurrence in post-agricultural over ancient forest and related to the species-specific life-history traits and local (soil characteristics and light availability) and regional factors (landscape properties as habitat availability, time available for colonization, and climate).
3. For the herb species, we demonstrate a strong (interactive) effect of species' life-history traits and forest habitat availability on the RR of post-agricultural forest. In graminoids, however, none of the investigated variables were significantly related to the RR.
4. The better colonizing species that mainly belonged to the short-lived herbs group showed the largest interregional variability. Their recovery significantly increased with the amount of forest habitat within the landscape, whereas, surprisingly, the time available for colonization, climate, soil characteristics and light availability had no effect.
5. Synthesis. By analysing 18 independent studies across Europe, we clearly showed for the first time on a continental scale that the recovery of short-lived forest herbs increased with the forest habitat availability in the landscape. Small perennial forest herbs, however, were generally unsuccessful in colonizing post-agricultural forest even in relatively densely forested landscapes. Hence, our results stress the need to avoid ancient forest clearance to preserve the typical woodland flora.
Slow-colonizing forest understorey plants are probably not able to rapidly adjust their distribution range following large-scale climate change. Therefore, the acclimation potential to climate change within their actual occupied habitats will likely be key for their short-and long-term persistence. We combined transplant experiments along a latitudinal gradient with open-top chambers to assess the effects of temperature on phenology, growth and reproductive performance of multiple populations of slow-colonizing understorey plants, using the spring flowering geophytic forb Anemone nemorosa and the early summer flowering grass Milium effusum as study species. In both species, emergence time and start of flowering clearly advanced with increasing temperatures. Vegetative growth (plant height, aboveground biomass) and reproductive success (seed mass, seed germination and germinable seed output) of A. nemorosa benefited from higher temperatures. Climate warming may thus increase future competitive ability and colonization rates of this species. Apart from the effects on phenology, growth and reproductive performance of M. effusum generally decreased when transplanted southwards (e. g., plant size and number of individuals decreased towards the south) and was probably more limited by light availability in the south. Specific leaf area of both species increased when transplanted southwards, but decreased with open-top chamber installation in A. nemorosa. In general, individuals of both species transplanted at the home site performed best, suggesting local adaptation. We conclude that contrasting understorey plants may display divergent plasticity in response to changing temperatures which may alter future understorey community dynamics.
Patterns of phenotypic trait variation in two temperate forest herbs along a broad climatic gradient
(2015)
Phenotypic trait variation plays a major role in the response of plants to global environmental change, particularly in species with low migration capabilities and recruitment success. However, little is known about the variation of functional traits within populations and about differences in this variation on larger spatial scales. In a first approach, we therefore related trait expression to climate and local environmental conditions, studying two temperate forest herbs, Milium effusum and Stachys sylvatica, along a similar to 1800-2500 km latitudinal gradient. Within each of 9-10 regions in six European countries, we collected data from six populations of each species and recorded several variables in each region (temperature, precipitation) and population (light availability, soil parameters). For each plant, we measured height, leaf area, specific leaf area, seed mass and the number of seeds and examined environmental effects on within-population trait variation as well as on trait means. Most importantly, trait variation differed both between and within populations. Species, however, differed in their response. Intrapopulation variation in Milium was consistently positively affected by higher mean temperatures and precipitation as well as by more fertile local soil conditions, suggesting that more productive conditions may select for larger phenotypic variation. In Stachys, particularly light availability positively influenced trait variation, whereas local soil conditions had no consistent effects. Generally, our study emphasises that intra-population variation may differ considerably across larger scales-due to phenotypic plasticity and/or underlying genetic diversity-possibly affecting species response to global environmental change.