Long-term warming results in species-specific shifts in seed mass in alpine communities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Global warming can cause variation in plant functional traits due to phenotypic plasticity or rapid microevolutionary change. Seed mass represents a fundamental axis of trait variation in plants, from an individual to a community scale. Here, we hypothesize that long-term warming can shift the mean seed mass of species.

Methods

We tested our hypothesis in plots that had been warmed over 18 years in alpine meadow communities with a history of light grazing (LG) and heavy grazing (HG) on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. In this study, seeds were collected during the growing season of 2015.

Results

We found that warming increased the mean seed mass of 4 (n = 19) species in the LG meadow and 6 (n = 20) species in the HG meadow, while decreasing the mean

SUBMITTER: Zhang C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6679644 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature