TY - JOUR

T1 - Global patterns and environmental drivers of forest functional composition

AU - Bouchard, Elise

AU - Searle, Eric B.

AU - Drapeau, Pierre

AU - Liang, Jingjing

AU - Gamarra, Javier G.P.

AU - Abegg, Meinrad

AU - Alberti, Giorgio

AU - Zambrano, Angelica Almeyda

AU - Alvarez-Davila, Esteban

AU - Alves, Luciana F.

AU - Avitabile, Valerio

AU - Aymard, Gerardo

AU - Bastin, Jean François

AU - Birnbaum, Philippe

AU - Bongers, Frans

AU - Bouriaud, Olivier

AU - Brancalion, Pedro

AU - Broadbent, Eben

AU - Bussotti, Filippo

AU - Gatti, Roberto Cazzolla

AU - Češljar, Goran

AU - Chisholm, Chelsea

AU - Cienciala, Emil

AU - Clark, Connie J.

AU - Corral-Rivas, José Javier

AU - Crowther, Thomas W.

AU - Dayanandan, Selvadurai

AU - Decuyper, Mathieu

AU - de Gasper, André L.

AU - de-Miguel, Sergio

AU - Derroire, Géraldine

AU - DeVries, Ben

AU - Djordjević, Ilija

AU - Van Do, Tran

AU - Dolezal, Jiri

AU - Fayle, Tom M.

AU - Fridman, Jonas

AU - Frizzera, Lorenzo

AU - Gianelle, Damiano

AU - Hemp, Andreas

AU - Hérault, Bruno

AU - Herold, Martin

AU - Imai, Nobuo

AU - Jagodziński, Andrzej M.

AU - Jaroszewicz, Bogdan

AU - Jucker, Tommaso

AU - Kepfer-Rojas, Sebastian

AU - Keppel, Gunnar

AU - Khan, Mohammed Latif

AU - Kim, Hyun Seok

AU - Korjus, Henn

AU - Kraxner, Florian

AU - Laarmann, Diana

AU - Lewis, Simon

AU - Lu, Huicui

AU - Maitner, Brian S.

AU - Marcon, Eric

AU - Marshall, Andrew R.

AU - Mukul, Sharif A.

AU - Nabuurs, Gert Jan

AU - Nava-Miranda, María Guadalupe

AU - Parfenova, Elena I.

AU - Park, Minjee

AU - Peri, Pablo L.

AU - Pfautsch, Sebastian

AU - Phillips, Oliver L.

AU - Piedade, Maria Teresa F.

AU - Piotto, Daniel

AU - Poulsen, John R.

AU - Poulsen, Axel Dalberg

AU - Pretzsch, Hans

AU - Reich, Peter B.

AU - Rodeghiero, Mirco

AU - Rolim, Samir

AU - Rovero, Francesco

AU - Saikia, Purabi

AU - Salas-Eljatib, Christian

AU - Schall, Peter

AU - Schepaschenko, Dmitry

AU - Schöngart, Jochen

AU - Šebeň, Vladimír

AU - Sist, Plinio

AU - Slik, Ferry

AU - Souza, Alexandre F.

AU - Stereńczak, Krzysztof

AU - Svoboda, Miroslav

AU - Tchebakova, Nadezhda M.

AU - ter Steege, Hans

AU - Tikhonova, Elena V.

AU - Usoltsev, Vladimir A.

AU - Valladares, Fernando

AU - Viana, Helder

AU - Vibrans, Alexander C.

AU - Wang, Hua Feng

AU - Westerlund, Bertil

AU - Wiser, Susan K.

AU - Wittmann, Florian

AU - Wortel, Verginia

AU - Zawiła-Niedźwiecki, Tomasz

AU - Zhou, Mo

AU - Zhu, Zhi Xin

AU - Zo-Bi, Irié C.

AU - Paquette, Alain

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Global Ecology and Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Aim: To determine the relationships between the functional trait composition of forest communities and environmental gradients across scales and biomes and the role of species relative abundances in these relationships. Location: Global. Time period: Recent. Major taxa studied: Trees. Methods: We integrated species abundance records from worldwide forest inventories and associated functional traits (wood density, specific leaf area and seed mass) to obtain a data set of 99,953 to 149,285 plots (depending on the trait) spanning all forested continents. We computed community-weighted and unweighted means of trait values for each plot and related them to three broad environmental gradients and their interactions (energy availability, precipitation and soil properties) at two scales (global and biomes). Results: Our models explained up to 60% of the variance in trait distribution. At global scale, the energy gradient had the strongest influence on traits. However, within-biome models revealed different relationships among biomes. Notably, the functional composition of tropical forests was more influenced by precipitation and soil properties than energy availability, whereas temperate forests showed the opposite pattern. Depending on the trait studied, response to gradients was more variable and proportionally weaker in boreal forests. Community unweighted means were better predicted than weighted means for almost all models. Main conclusions: Worldwide, trees require a large amount of energy (following latitude) to produce dense wood and seeds, while leaves with large surface to weight ratios are concentrated in temperate forests. However, patterns of functional composition within-biome differ from global patterns due to biome specificities such as the presence of conifers or unique combinations of climatic and soil properties. We recommend assessing the sensitivity of tree functional traits to environmental changes in their geographic context. Furthermore, at a given site, the distribution of tree functional traits appears to be driven more by species presence than species abundance.

AB - Aim: To determine the relationships between the functional trait composition of forest communities and environmental gradients across scales and biomes and the role of species relative abundances in these relationships. Location: Global. Time period: Recent. Major taxa studied: Trees. Methods: We integrated species abundance records from worldwide forest inventories and associated functional traits (wood density, specific leaf area and seed mass) to obtain a data set of 99,953 to 149,285 plots (depending on the trait) spanning all forested continents. We computed community-weighted and unweighted means of trait values for each plot and related them to three broad environmental gradients and their interactions (energy availability, precipitation and soil properties) at two scales (global and biomes). Results: Our models explained up to 60% of the variance in trait distribution. At global scale, the energy gradient had the strongest influence on traits. However, within-biome models revealed different relationships among biomes. Notably, the functional composition of tropical forests was more influenced by precipitation and soil properties than energy availability, whereas temperate forests showed the opposite pattern. Depending on the trait studied, response to gradients was more variable and proportionally weaker in boreal forests. Community unweighted means were better predicted than weighted means for almost all models. Main conclusions: Worldwide, trees require a large amount of energy (following latitude) to produce dense wood and seeds, while leaves with large surface to weight ratios are concentrated in temperate forests. However, patterns of functional composition within-biome differ from global patterns due to biome specificities such as the presence of conifers or unique combinations of climatic and soil properties. We recommend assessing the sensitivity of tree functional traits to environmental changes in their geographic context. Furthermore, at a given site, the distribution of tree functional traits appears to be driven more by species presence than species abundance.

KW - biogeography

KW - climate

KW - environmental gradients

KW - functional traits

KW - seed mass

KW - species abundance

KW - specific leaf area

KW - trees

KW - wood density

U2 - 10.1111/geb.13790

DO - 10.1111/geb.13790

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85182844125

VL - 33

SP - 303

EP - 324

JO - Global Ecology and Biogeography

JF - Global Ecology and Biogeography

SN - 1466-822X

IS - 2

ER -