Climate is the main driver of clonal and bud bank traits in Italian forest understories

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985939%3A_____%2F19%3A00509842" target="_blank" >RIV/67985939:_____/19:00509842 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0300449" target="_blank" >http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0300449</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2019.125478" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.ppees.2019.125478</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Climate is the main driver of clonal and bud bank traits in Italian forest understories

Original language description

The study of plant trait-environment links is rarely focused on traits that inform on space occupancy and resprouting (both affecting plant persistence), especially in forest understories. Traits that can effectively capture such key functions are associated with clonality and bud banks. We hypothesized that: 1) climate is the main driver of clonal and bud bank traits, 2) traits related to space occupancy (e.g., greater lateral spread) are more important in more mesic, richer soils forests, and 3) traits related to resprouting ability (e.g., larger bud bank) are more important in more intensively and recently managed forests. We addressed these hypotheses by analysing a unique dataset that is statistically representative of Italian forests heterogeneity and includes three biogeographic regions (Alpine, Continental, Mediterranean). We recorded data for sixteen climatic, soil and management variables. We calculated community weighted mean (CWM) values of seven clonal and bud bank traits for the forest understory vegetation. We used i) redundancy analysis to assess trait-environment relations, and ii) variance partitioning analyses to identifying the relative role of different groups of abiotic variables on CWM variation of all traits combined together, as well as clonal and bud bank traits taken separately. Climate alone had a pervasive effect in determining patterns of clonal and bud bank traits in Italian forest understories, mainly related to the effects of temperature extremes and seasonality. Unexpectedly, soil and management factors alone showed marginal effects on clonal and bud bank traits. However, soil features influenced trait patterns when joined with climate. Our results confirmed that, at the biogeographic scale, climate played a lion-share role in determining persistence-related traits of forest-floor plants. At the local-scale, other interplaying factors (e.g., management, soil variables) may come into play in shaping patterns of the studied plant traits. This study stressed the importance of examining functional trait patterns along complex environmental gradients.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2019

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics

ISSN

1433-8319

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

40

Issue of the periodical within the volume

OCT 2019

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

8

Pages from-to

125478

UT code for WoS article

000488207700003

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85070072632