Article (Scientific journals)
Globally, functional traits are weak predictors of juvenile tree growth, and we do not know why
Paine, C.E. Thimothy; Amissah, Lucy; Auge, Harald et al.
2015In Journal of Ecology, 103 (4), p. 978-989
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Keywords :
Functional ecology; FunDivEurope; Growth; Hierarchical models; Plant population and community dynamics; Relative growth rate; Size-standardized growth rate; TreeDivNet
Abstract :
[en] 1. Plant functional traits, in particular specific leaf area (SLA), wood density and seed mass, are often good predictors of individual tree growth rates within communities. Individuals and species with high SLA, low wood density and small seeds tend to have faster growth rates. 2. If community-level relationships between traits and growth have general predictive value, then similar relationships should also be observed in analyses that integrate across taxa, biogeographic regions and environments. Such global consistency would imply that traits could serve as valuable proxies for the complex suite of factors that determine growth rate, and, therefore, could underpin a new generation of robust dynamic vegetation models. Alternatively, growth rates may depend more strongly on the local environment or growth–trait relationships may vary along environmental gradients. 3. We tested these alternative hypotheses using data on 27 352 juvenile trees, representing 278 species from 27 sites on all forested continents, and extensive functional trait data, 38% of which were obtained at the same sites at which growth was assessed. Data on potential evapotranspiration (PET), which summarizes the joint ecological effects of temperature and precipitation, were obtained from a global data base. 4. We estimated size-standardized relative height growth rates (SGR) for all species, then related them to functional traits and PET using mixed-effect models for the fastest growing species and for all species together. 5. Both the mean and 95th percentile SGR were more strongly associated with functional traits than with PET. PET was unrelated to SGR at the global scale. SGR increased with increasing SLA and decreased with increasing wood density and seed mass, but these traits explained only 3.1% of the variation in SGR. SGR–trait relationships were consistently weak across families and biogeographic zones, and over a range of tree statures. Thus, the most widely studied functional traits in plant ecology were poor predictors of tree growth over large scales. 6. Synthesis. We conclude that these functional traits alone may be unsuitable for predicting growth of trees over broad scales. Determining the functional traits that predict vital rates under specific environmental conditions may generate more insight than a monolithic global relationship can offer.
Disciplines :
Phytobiology (plant sciences, forestry, mycology...)
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Paine, C.E. Thimothy
Amissah, Lucy
Auge, Harald
Baraloto, Christopher
Baruffol, Martin
Bourland, Nils
Bruelheide, Helge
Daïnou, Kasso  ;  Université de Liège > Forêts, Nature et Paysage > Laboratoire de Foresterie des régions trop. et subtropicales
de Gouvenain, Roland C.
Doucet, Jean-Louis  ;  Université de Liège > Forêts, Nature et Paysage > Laboratoire de Foresterie des régions trop. et subtropicales
Doust, Susan
Fine, Paul V.A.
Fortunel, Claire
Haase, Joséphine
Holl, Karen D.
Jactel, Hervé
Li, Xuefei
Kitajima, Kaoru
Koricheva, Julia
Martinez-Garza, Cristina
Messier, Christian
Paquette, Alain
Philipson, Christopher
Piotto, Daniel
Poorter, Lourens
Posada, Juan M.
Potvin, Catherine
Rainio, Kalle
Russo, Sabrina E.
Ruiz-Jaen, Mariacarmen
Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael
Webb, Campbell O.
Wright, S. Joseph
Zahawi, Rakan A.
Hector, Andy
More authors (25 more) Less
Language :
English
Title :
Globally, functional traits are weak predictors of juvenile tree growth, and we do not know why
Publication date :
2015
Journal title :
Journal of Ecology
ISSN :
0022-0477
eISSN :
1365-2745
Publisher :
Blackwell Publishing
Volume :
103
Issue :
4
Pages :
978-989
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 29 May 2015

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