Trait velocities reveal that mortality has driven widespread coordinated shifts in forest hydraulic trait composition.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the driving mechanisms behind existing patterns of vegetation hydraulic traits and community trait diversity is critical for advancing predictions of the terrestrial carbon cycle because hydraulic traits affect both ecosystem and Earth system responses to changing water availability. Here, we leverage an extensive trait database and a long-term continental forest plot network to map changes in community trait distributions and quantify "trait velocities" (the rate of change in community-weighted traits) for different regions and different forest types across the United States from 2000 to the present. We show that diversity in hydraulic traits and photosynthetic characteristics is more related to local water availability than overall species diversity. Finally, we find eviden

SUBMITTER: Trugman AT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7165451 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature