Using plant functional traits to understand the landscape distribution of multiple ecosystem services

Abstract

Summary1. Spatially explicit understanding of the delivery of multiple ecosystem services (ES) from global to local scales is currently limited. New studies analysing the simultaneous provision of multiple services at landscape scale should aid the understanding of multiple ES delivery and trade-offs to support policy, management and land planning. 2. Here, we propose a new approach for the analysis, mapping and understanding of multiple ES delivery in landscapes. Spatially explicit single ES models based on plant traits and abiotic characteristics are combined to identify 'hot' and 'cold' spots of multiple ES delivery, and the land use and biotic determinants of such distributions. We demonstrate the value of this trait-based approach as compared to a pure land-use approach for a pastoral landscape from the central French Alps, and highlight how it improves understanding of ecological constraints to, and opportunities for, the delivery of multiple services. 3. Vegetative height and leaf traits such as leaf dry matter content were response traits strongly influenced by land use and abiotic environment, with follow-on effects on several ecosystem properties, and could therefore be used as functional markers of ES. 4. Patterns of association among ES were related to the dominant traits underlying different ecosystem properties. The functional decoupling between height and leaf traits provided alternative pathways for high agronomic value, as well as determining hot and cold spots of ES. Traditional land uses such as organic fertilization and mowing or altitude summer grazing were also linked with ES hot spots, because functional characteristics supporting fodder production and quality are compatible with species and functional diversity. 5. Synthesis. Analyses of ES using plant functional variation across landscapes are a powerful approach to understanding the fundamental ecological mechanisms underlying ES provision, and trade-offs or synergies among services. Sustainable management of species and functionally diverse grassland could simultaneously aim at conserving biodiversity and locally important ES by taking advantage of correlations and trade-offs among different plant functional traits.

Functional traits in agriculture: agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services

“…To integrate traits and spatial scale, trait-based data could be integrated into existing spatially explicit models of ecosystem services (or disservices) [55,56]. These modeling approaches would first identify the landscape patches important to the provisioning of certain ecosystem services [55,57].…”

“…For instance, Biswas et al [59] demonstrated that fine-scale responses of plant functional trait diversity to environmental disturbance exhibit greater unexplained variance and evidence of local-scale competition than did coarse-scale patterns. Combining such spatial metrics with data on traits and abiotic characteristics would enable the development of spatially explicit models of ecosystem services that use point data to predict the landscape distribution of ecosystem services [56]. Models with and without trait data could then be compared to determine the importance of traits vis-à -vis environmental properties to particular ecosystem services.…”

Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystem Functions

“…Of course, the species in a 94 community are essential to the provision of many ecosystem functions which are the 95 biological foundation of ecosystem services [3]. However, the stability of species 96 composition itself is not a necessary pre-requisite for the resilience of ecosystem functions. 97 Turnover in species communities might actually be the very thing that allows for resilient 98 functions.…”

“…These proxy measures are currently used to inform on spatial and temporal trends in ecosystem function for the reporting and management of biodiversity change [4][5][6]. Such models use abiotic variables such as land cover, topography and climate data as explanatory variables in spatially-explicit statistical correlative models [96,97] or process models [98,99] in order to predict the provision of ecosystem functions and services. However, because models are parameterised and validated (where undertaken) on the current set of environmental conditions they are often only suitable for producing indicators of short-term ecosystem function flows rather than resilience under environmental perturbations (Figure 4).…”

A Review of Strong Evidence for the Effect of Functional Dominance on Carbon Stocks in Natural Forest Ecosystems

“…Several earlier studies conducted in different terrestrial ecosystems have suggested that plant functional trait effects may primarily be attributed to the mass ratio hypothesis (CWM effects) rather than to divergence effects (FD effects) (Mokany et al, 2008;Laughlin, 2011;Lavorel et al, 2011), sometimes due to correlation between these two FTD indices (Dias et al, 2013). Still, most recent studies have also strongly supported the mass ratio hypothesis, while poorly or no support for the niche complementarity hypothesis regarding FTD-C stocks relationship in natural forest ecosystems.…”