Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities

Abstract To improve understanding of how global warming may affect competitive interactions among plants, information on the responses of plant functional traits across species to long-term warming is needed. Here we report the effect of 23 years of experimental warming on plant traits across four d...

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Autores principales:	Gaurav Baruah, Ulf Molau, Yang Bai, Juha M. Alatalo
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c883ed899cc5437987b2b407c149dfcd
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c883ed899cc5437987b2b407c149dfcd2021-12-02T11:40:59ZCommunity and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities10.1038/s41598-017-02595-22045-2322https://doaj.org/article/c883ed899cc5437987b2b407c149dfcd2017-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-02595-2https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract To improve understanding of how global warming may affect competitive interactions among plants, information on the responses of plant functional traits across species to long-term warming is needed. Here we report the effect of 23 years of experimental warming on plant traits across four different alpine subarctic plant communities: tussock tundra, Dryas heath, dry heath and wet meadow. Open-top chambers (OTCs) were used to passively warm the vegetation by 1.5–3 °C. Changes in leaf width, leaf length and plant height of 22 vascular plant species were measured. Long-term warming significantly affected all plant traits. Overall, plant species were taller, with longer and wider leaves, compared with control plots, indicating an increase in biomass in warmed plots, with 13 species having significant increases in at least one trait and only three species having negative responses. The response varied among species and plant community in which the species was sampled, indicating community-warming interactions. Thus, plant trait responses are both species- and community-specific. Importantly, we show that there is likely to be great variation between plant species in their ability to maintain positive growth responses over the longer term, which might cause shifts in their relative competitive ability.Gaurav BaruahUlf MolauYang BaiJuha M. AlataloNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Gaurav Baruah Ulf Molau Yang Bai Juha M. Alatalo Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities
description	Abstract To improve understanding of how global warming may affect competitive interactions among plants, information on the responses of plant functional traits across species to long-term warming is needed. Here we report the effect of 23 years of experimental warming on plant traits across four different alpine subarctic plant communities: tussock tundra, Dryas heath, dry heath and wet meadow. Open-top chambers (OTCs) were used to passively warm the vegetation by 1.5–3 °C. Changes in leaf width, leaf length and plant height of 22 vascular plant species were measured. Long-term warming significantly affected all plant traits. Overall, plant species were taller, with longer and wider leaves, compared with control plots, indicating an increase in biomass in warmed plots, with 13 species having significant increases in at least one trait and only three species having negative responses. The response varied among species and plant community in which the species was sampled, indicating community-warming interactions. Thus, plant trait responses are both species- and community-specific. Importantly, we show that there is likely to be great variation between plant species in their ability to maintain positive growth responses over the longer term, which might cause shifts in their relative competitive ability.
format	article
author	Gaurav Baruah Ulf Molau Yang Bai Juha M. Alatalo
author_facet	Gaurav Baruah Ulf Molau Yang Bai Juha M. Alatalo
author_sort	Gaurav Baruah
title	Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities
title_short	Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities
title_full	Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities
title_fullStr	Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities
title_full_unstemmed	Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities
title_sort	community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/c883ed899cc5437987b2b407c149dfcd
work_keys_str_mv	AT gauravbaruah communityandspeciesspecificresponsesofplanttraitsto23yearsofexperimentalwarmingacrosssubarctictundraplantcommunities AT ulfmolau communityandspeciesspecificresponsesofplanttraitsto23yearsofexperimentalwarmingacrosssubarctictundraplantcommunities AT yangbai communityandspeciesspecificresponsesofplanttraitsto23yearsofexperimentalwarmingacrosssubarctictundraplantcommunities AT juhamalatalo communityandspeciesspecificresponsesofplanttraitsto23yearsofexperimentalwarmingacrosssubarctictundraplantcommunities
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Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities

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