Plant functional traits directly affect ecosystem functions. At the species level, trait combinations depend on trade-offs representing different ecological strategies, but at the community level trait combinations are expected to be decoupled from these trade-offs because different strategies can facilitate co-existence within communities. A key question is to what extent community-level trait composition is globally filtered and how well it is related to global versus local environmental drivers. Here, we perform a global, plot-level analysis of trait-environment relationships, using a database with more than 1.1 million vegetation plots and 26,632 plant species with trait information. Although we found a strong filtering of 17 functional traits, similar climate and soil conditions support communities differing greatly in mean trait values. The two main community trait axes that capture half of the global trait variation (plant stature and resource acquisitiveness) reflect the trade-offs at the species level but are weakly associated with climate and soil conditions at the global scale. Similarly, within-plot trait variation does not vary systematically with macro-environment. Our results indicate that, at fine spatial grain, macro-environmental drivers are much less important for functional trait composition than has been assumed from floristic analyses restricted to co-occurrence in large grid cells. Instead, trait combinations seem to be predominantly filtered by local-scale factors such as disturbance, fine-scale soil conditions, niche partitioning and biotic interactions.

Agroecology University of Göttingen Göttingen Germany

AMAP IRD CIRAD CNRS INRA Université Montpellier Montpellier France

Biodiversity Biocenter Klein Flottbek and Botanical Garden University of Hamburg Hamburg Germany

Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World and Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity Department of Bioscience Aarhus University Aarhus Denmark

Campus de Cruzeiro do Su Universidade Federal do Acre Acre Brazil

Central Siberian Botanical Garden SB RAS Novosibirsk Russia

Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive CNRS Université de Montpellier Université Paul Valéry Montpellier EPHE Montpellier France

Cirad UMR EcoFoG Campus Agronomique Kourou French Guiana

College of Urban and Environmental Sciences Peking University Beijing China

Conservación y Manejo de Vida Silvestre Universidad Estatal Amazónica Puyo Ecuador

CREAF Barcelona Spain

Data and Modelling Centre Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt am Main Germany

Departamento de Ciencias Ambientales y Recursos Naturales Renovables Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas Universidad de Chile Santiago Chile

Departamento de Engenharia Florestal Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina Lages Brazil

Departamento de Engenharia Florestal Universidade Regional de Blumenau Blumenau Brazil

Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany

Department of Biological Sciences International Center for Tropical Botany Florida International University Miami FL USA

Department of Biology Geology Physics and Inorganic Chemistry Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Madrid Spain

Department of Biology Santa Clara University Santa Clara CA USA

Department of Biology University of La Serena La Serena Chile

Department of Biology University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill NC USA

Department of Biology University of Wisconsin Eau Claire Eau Claire WI USA

Department of Biology Wake Forest University Winston Salem NC USA

Department of Botany and Zoology Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Department of Botany School of Biology Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Thessaloniki Greece

Department of Botany University of Wyoming Laramie WY USA

Department of Community Ecology Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ Halle Germany

Department of Conservation Biology Institute of Environmental Sciences Leiden University Leiden the Netherlands

Department of Crop Science and Plant Biology Estonian University of Life Science Tartu Estonia

Department of Disturbance Ecology Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research University of Bayreuth Bayreuth Germany

Department of Ecological Science Faculty of Science Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam the Netherlands

Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection Faculty of Biology University of Sofia Sofia Bulgaria

Department of Ecology and Genetics University of Oulu Oulu Finland

Department of Ecology Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Porto Alegre Brazil

Department of Environmental Biology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy

Department of Evolutionary Biology Faculty of Biology Ecology and Environmental Sciences University of Barcelona Barcelona Spain

Department of Forest Ecology Faculty of Forestry and Wood Science Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Department of Forest Resources University of Minnesota St Paul MN USA

Department of Forestry and Environmental Science Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Sylhet Bangladesh

Department of Green Chemistry and Technology Faculty of Bioscience Engineering Ghent University Gent Belgium

Department of Physiological Diversity Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research UFZ Leipzig Germany

Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany University of Zurich Zurich Switzerland

Department of Vegetation Ecology Institute of Environmental Biology University of Wroclaw Wrocław Poland

Environmental Change Institute School of Geography and the Environment University of Oxford Oxford UK

Escuela de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Ambientales ECAPMA Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD Sede José Celestino Mutis Bogotá Colombia

Faculty for Agricultural and Environmental Science University of Rostock Rostock Germany

Geography College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Exeter UK

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Leipzig Germany

GINOP Sustainable Ecosystems Group MTA Centre for Ecological Research Tihany Hungary

Global Ecology Unit CREAF CEAB UAB CSIC Cerdanyola del Vallès Spain

Great Lakes Forestry Centre Canadian Forest Service Natural Resources Canada Sault Ste Marie Ontario Canada

Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment Western Sydney University Sydney New South Wales Australia

Herbario Vargas Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco Cusco Peru

ICREA Barcelona Spain

Institut de recherche sur les forêts Université du Québec en Abitibi Témiscamingue Rouyn Noranda Quebec Canada

Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët Boigny Yamoussoukro Côte d'Ivoire

Institute for Water and Wetland Research Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen the Netherlands

Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Sofia Bulgaria

Institute of Biology Geobotany and Botanical Garden Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg Halle Germany

Institute of Biology Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Ljubljana Slovenia

Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Průhonice Czech Republic

Institute of Ecology and Evolution Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena Germany

Institute of Landscape Ecology University of Münster Münster Germany

Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal CONICET and FCEFyN Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Córdoba Argentina

International Institute Zittau TU Dresden Zittau Germany

Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development Georgetown Guyana

Laboratório de Botânica e Ecologia Vegetal Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Natureza Museu Universitário Universidade Federal do Acre Rio Branco Brazil

Landcare Research Lincoln New Zealand

Landscape Ecology Group Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences University of Oldenburg Oldenburg Germany

Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena Germany

Millennium Seed Bank Conservation Science Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Ardingly UK

Naturalis Biodiversity Cente Leiden University Leiden the Netherlands

Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research University of Göttingen Göttingen Germany

Plant Ecology Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research University of Bayreuth Bayreuth Germany

Research Group Vegetation Ecology Institute of Natural Resource Sciences Zurich University of Applied Sciences Wädenswil Switzerland

Research Unit of Biodiversity University of Oviedo Campus de Mieres Mieres Spain

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory Crested Butte CO USA

School of Geography University of Leeds Leeds UK

School of Geography University of Nottingham University Park Nottingham UK

School of GeoSciences University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK

School of Science Environmental Research Institute University of Waikato Hamilton New Zealand

Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz Görlitz Germany

Spanish Research Council Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes Blanes Spain

Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL Birmensdorf Switzerland

Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity University of Leipzig Leipzig Germany

Team Vegetation Forest and Landscape Ecology Wageningen Environmental Research Wageningen the Netherlands

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network School of Biological Sciences University of Adelaide Adelaide South Australia Australia

The Department of Geography University of British Columbia Vancouver British Columbia Canada

UCA INRA VetAgro Sup UREP Clermont Ferrand France

UMR 248 MARBEC Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la MER Sète France

University of Nova Gorica Nova Gorica Slovenia

University of Tartu Tartu Estonia

University of the Basque Country UPV EHU Bilbao Spain

UR 'Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés' CNRS Université de Picardie Jules Verne Amiens France

UR Forests and Societies Cirad University of Montpellier Montpellier France

Vegetation Analysis and Plant Diversity Albrecht von Haller Institute of Plant Sciences University of Göttingen Göttingen Germany

Komentář v

Nat Ecol Evol. 2018 Dec;2(12):1844-1845. doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0739-4. PubMed

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