Plant evolutionary history mainly explains the variance in biomass responses to climate warming at a global scale

Abstract

Summary Evolutionary history shapes the interspecific relatedness and intraspecific variation, which has a profound influence on plant functional traits and productivity. However, it is far from clear how the phylogenetic relatedness among species and intraspecific variation could contribute to the observed variance in plant biomass responses to climate warming. We compiled a dataset with 284 species from warming experiments to explore the relative importance of phylogenetic, intraspecific, experimental and ecological factors to warming effects on plant biomass, using phylogenetic eigenvector regression and variance decomposition. Our results showed that phylogenetic relatedness could account for about half the total variance in biomass responses to warming, which were correlated with leaf economic traits at the family level but not at species level. The intraspecific variation contributed to approximately one‐third of the variance, whereas the experimental design and ecological characteristics only explained 7–17%. These results suggest that intrinsic factors (evolutionary history) play more important roles than extrinsic factors (experimental treatment and environment) in determining the responses of plant biomass to warming at the global scale. This highlights the urgent need for land surface models to include evolutionary aspects in predicting ecosystem functions under climate change.

Growing‐season temperature and precipitation are independent drivers of global variation in xylem hydraulic conductivity

“…We also conducted searches on Web of Science, Google Scholar, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (http://www.cnki.net) using the keywords “xylem hydraulic conductivity,” “branch/stem hydraulic conductivity,” “water conductivity,” and “hydraulic traits.” To minimize ontogenetic and methodological variation, we included data that met the following criteria: (a) wild plants growing in natural ecosystems, excluding greenhouse and common garden experiments; (b) xylem hydraulic conductivity measured on terminal stem or branch segments (commonly 3–10 mm in diameter and 10–30 cm in length), that is, measurements on root or leaf tissues were not included; (c) measurements were made on adult plants or saplings, but not on seedlings; (d) K S was measured (e.g., Sperry et al, ), not estimated from vessel measurements (e.g., Hagen–Poiseuille equation); and (e) only maximum hydraulic conductivity was used, not so‐called “native” hydraulic conductivity. Mean K S values were calculated for each species at the same site (Shao et al, ; Wright et al, , ).…”

Leaf Trait Covariation and Its Controls: A Quantitative Data Analysis Along a Subtropical Elevation Gradient

“…We observed the vegetation distribution along the elevation gradient, which was characterized by phylogenetic differences, is the most important determining factor of trait covariation. Plant trait variations are controlled by the combination of genetic differences, which are reflected by phenotypic plasticity, and the effects of environmental conditions (Shao et al., 2019). Therefore, to some extent, predicting species distributions is a prerequisite for accurately capturing trait covariations in trait‐based modeling.…”

Faculty Opinions recommendation of Robust leaf trait relationships across species under global environmental changes.

“…However, the findings of some differences in the elevation of trait relationship between functional groups imply the need to explore trait variations across phylogenetically distant species. In fact, some recent global analyses have shown the importance of phylogenetic factors in explaining plant response to global changes 52,53 .…”