Rooting for function: community-level fine-root traits relate to many ecosystem functions.

ABSTRACT: Humans are driving biodiversity change, which also alters community functional traits. However, how changes in the functional traits of the community alter ecosystem functions-especially belowground-remains an important gap in our understanding of the consequences of biodiversity change. We test hypotheses for how the root traits of the root economics space (composed of the collaboration and conservation gradients) are associated with proxies for ecosystem functioning across grassland and forest ecosystems in both observational and experimental datasets from 810 plant communities. First, we assessed whether community-weighted means of the root economics space traits adhered to the same trade-offs as species-level root traits. Then, we examined the relationships between community-weighted m

SUBMITTER: Barry KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12630466 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature