Plants possess a large variety of nonacquisitive belowground organs, such as rhizomes, tubers, bulbs, and coarse roots. These organs determine a whole set of functions that are decisive in coping with climate, productivity, disturbance, and biotic interactions, and have been hypothesized to affect plant distribution along environmental gradients. We assembled data on belowground organ morphology for 1712 species from Central Europe and tested these hypotheses by quantifying relationships between belowground morphologies and species optima along ecological gradients related to productivity and disturbance. Furthermore, we linked these data with species co-occurrence in 30 115 vegetation plots from the Czech Republic to determine relationships between belowground organ diversity and these gradients. The strongest gradients determining belowground organ distribution were disturbance severity and frequency, light, and moisture. Nonclonal perennials and annuals occupy much smaller parts of the total environmental space than major types of clonal plants. Forest habitats had the highest diversity of co-occurring belowground morphologies; in other habitats, the diversity of belowground morphologies was generally lower than the random expectation. Our work shows that nonacquisitive belowground organs may be partly responsible for plant environmental niches. This adds a new dimension to the plant trait spectrum, currently based on acquisitive traits (leaves and fine roots) only.
- Klíčová slova
- annuals, clonal growth organs, environmental gradients, nonclonal perennials, plant communities,
- MeSH
- ekosystém * MeSH
- lesy MeSH
- podnebí MeSH
- rostliny * MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Evropa MeSH
This dataset presents comprehensive and easy-to-use information on 29 functional traits of clonal growth, bud banks, and lifespan of members of the Central European flora. The source data were compiled from a number of published sources (see the reference file) and the authors' own observations or studies. In total, 2,909 species are included (2,745 herbs and 164 woody species), out of which 1,532 (i.e., 52.7% of total) are classified as possessing clonal growth organs (1,480, i.e., 53.9%, if woody plants are excluded). This provides a unique, and largely unexplored, set of traits of clonal growth that can be used in studies on comparative plant ecology, plant evolution, community assembly, and ecosystem functioning across the large flora of Central Europe. It can be directly imported into a number of programs and packages that perform trait-based and phylogenetic analyses aimed to answer a variety of open and pressing ecological questions.
- Klíčová slova
- Central European flora, Czech flora, bud-bank traits, clonal traits, functional ecology, lifespan, vascular plants,
- MeSH
- databáze genetické * MeSH
- ekologie MeSH
- ekosystém MeSH
- fylogeneze MeSH
- rostliny klasifikace genetika MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Evropa MeSH
