Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands

Abstract Functional traits are proxies for plant physiology and performance, which do not only differ between species but also within species. In this work, we hypothesized that (a) with increasing precipitation, the percentage of focal species which significantly respond to changes in grazing inten...

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Autores principales:	Birgit Lang, Julian Ahlborn, Munkhzuul Oyunbileg, Anna Geiger, Henrik vonWehrden, Karsten Wesche, Batlai Oyuntsetseg, Christine Römermann
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Wiley 2020
Materias:	environmental gradients grasslands intraspecific trait variability land‐use rainfall steppes Ecology QH540-549.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/046fee35d8834e8d818f4874056ea00e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:046fee35d8834e8d818f4874056ea00e2021-11-04T13:06:09ZGrazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands2045-775810.1002/ece3.5895https://doaj.org/article/046fee35d8834e8d818f4874056ea00e2020-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5895https://doaj.org/toc/2045-7758Abstract Functional traits are proxies for plant physiology and performance, which do not only differ between species but also within species. In this work, we hypothesized that (a) with increasing precipitation, the percentage of focal species which significantly respond to changes in grazing intensity increases, while under dry conditions, climate‐induced stress is so high that plant species hardly respond to any changes in grazing intensity and that (b) the magnitude with which species change their trait values in response to grazing, reflected by coefficients of variation (CVs), increases with increasing precipitation. Chosen plant traits were canopy height, plant width, specific leaf area (SLA), chlorophyll fluorescence, performance index, stomatal pore area index (SPI), and individual aboveground biomass of 15 species along a precipitation gradient with different grazing intensities in Mongolian rangelands. We used linear models for each trait to assess whether the percentage of species that respond to grazing changes along the precipitation gradient. To test the second hypothesis, we assessed the magnitude of intraspecific trait variability (ITV) response to grazing, per species, trait, and precipitation level by calculating CVs across the different grazing intensities. ITV was most prominent for SLA and SPI under highest precipitation, confirming our first hypothesis. Accordingly, CVs of canopy height, SPI, and SLA increased with increasing precipitation, partly confirming our second hypothesis. CVs of the species over all traits increased with increasing precipitation only for three species. This study shows that it remains challenging to predict how plant performance will shift under changing environmental conditions based on their traits alone. In this context, the implications for the use of community‐weighted mean trait values are discussed, as not only species abundances change in response to changing environmental conditions, but also values of traits considerably change. Including this aspect in further studies will improve our understanding of processes acting within and among communities.Birgit LangJulian AhlbornMunkhzuul OyunbilegAnna GeigerHenrik vonWehrdenKarsten WescheBatlai OyuntsetsegChristine RömermannWileyarticleenvironmental gradientsgrasslandsintraspecific trait variabilityland‐userainfallsteppesEcologyQH540-549.5ENEcology and Evolution, Vol 10, Iss 2, Pp 678-691 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	environmental gradients grasslands intraspecific trait variability land‐use rainfall steppes Ecology QH540-549.5
spellingShingle	environmental gradients grasslands intraspecific trait variability land‐use rainfall steppes Ecology QH540-549.5 Birgit Lang Julian Ahlborn Munkhzuul Oyunbileg Anna Geiger Henrik vonWehrden Karsten Wesche Batlai Oyuntsetseg Christine Römermann Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands
description	Abstract Functional traits are proxies for plant physiology and performance, which do not only differ between species but also within species. In this work, we hypothesized that (a) with increasing precipitation, the percentage of focal species which significantly respond to changes in grazing intensity increases, while under dry conditions, climate‐induced stress is so high that plant species hardly respond to any changes in grazing intensity and that (b) the magnitude with which species change their trait values in response to grazing, reflected by coefficients of variation (CVs), increases with increasing precipitation. Chosen plant traits were canopy height, plant width, specific leaf area (SLA), chlorophyll fluorescence, performance index, stomatal pore area index (SPI), and individual aboveground biomass of 15 species along a precipitation gradient with different grazing intensities in Mongolian rangelands. We used linear models for each trait to assess whether the percentage of species that respond to grazing changes along the precipitation gradient. To test the second hypothesis, we assessed the magnitude of intraspecific trait variability (ITV) response to grazing, per species, trait, and precipitation level by calculating CVs across the different grazing intensities. ITV was most prominent for SLA and SPI under highest precipitation, confirming our first hypothesis. Accordingly, CVs of canopy height, SPI, and SLA increased with increasing precipitation, partly confirming our second hypothesis. CVs of the species over all traits increased with increasing precipitation only for three species. This study shows that it remains challenging to predict how plant performance will shift under changing environmental conditions based on their traits alone. In this context, the implications for the use of community‐weighted mean trait values are discussed, as not only species abundances change in response to changing environmental conditions, but also values of traits considerably change. Including this aspect in further studies will improve our understanding of processes acting within and among communities.
format	article
author	Birgit Lang Julian Ahlborn Munkhzuul Oyunbileg Anna Geiger Henrik vonWehrden Karsten Wesche Batlai Oyuntsetseg Christine Römermann
author_facet	Birgit Lang Julian Ahlborn Munkhzuul Oyunbileg Anna Geiger Henrik vonWehrden Karsten Wesche Batlai Oyuntsetseg Christine Römermann
author_sort	Birgit Lang
title	Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands
title_short	Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands
title_full	Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands
title_fullStr	Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands
title_full_unstemmed	Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands
title_sort	grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in mongolian rangelands
publisher	Wiley
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/046fee35d8834e8d818f4874056ea00e
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_version_	1718444880177397760

Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands

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