The plant traits that drive ecosystems: Evidence from three continents

Abstract Question: A set of easily‐measured (‘soft’) plant traits has been identified as potentially useful predictors of ecosystem functioning in previous studies. Here we aimed to discover whether the screening techniques remain operational in widely contrasted circumstances, to test for the existence of axes of variation in the particular sets of traits, and to test for their links with ‘harder’ traits of proven importance to ecosystem functioning. Location: central‐western Argentina, central England, northern upland Iran, and north‐eastern Spain. Recurrent patterns of ecological specialization: Through ordination of a matrix of 640 vascular plant taxa by 12 standardized traits, we detected similar patterns…

• AW
  Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• AC
  Agencia Córdoba Ciencia
• UN
  Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
• DF
  Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK Government
• EC
  European Commission
• CN
  Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
• CI
  Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología
• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council
• FP
  Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica