A slow-fast trait continuum at the whole community level in relation to land-use intensification
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Organismal functional strategies form a continuum from slow- to fast-growing organisms, in response to common drivers such as resource availability and disturbance. However, whether there is synchronisation of these strategies at the entire community level is unclear. Here, we combine trait data for >2800 above- and belowground taxa from 14 trophic guilds spanning a disturbance and resource availability gradient in German grasslands. The results indicate that most guilds consistently respond to these drivers through both direct and trophically mediated effects, resulting in a ‘slow-fast’ axis at the level of the entire community. Using 15 indicators of carbon and nutrient fluxes, biomass production and decomposition, we also show that fast trait communities are associated with faster rates of ecosystem functioning. These findings demonstrate that ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ strategies can be manifested at the level of whole communities, opening new avenues of ecosystem-level functional classification.
Date Issued
2024-02-10
Date Acceptance
2024-01-16
Citation
Nature Communications, 2024, 15
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
15
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2024 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38341437
PII: 10.1038/s41467-024-45113-5
Subjects
FOLIAR NITROGEN ISOTOPES
FUNCTIONAL TRAITS
LEAF NITROGEN
LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS
MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES
Multidisciplinary Sciences
MULTIPLE FACTOR-ANALYSIS
PHOTOSYNTHETIC CAPACITY
PHYLOGENETIC STRUCTURE
PLANT ECONOMICS SPECTRUM
Science & Technology
Science & Technology - Other Topics
USE INTENSITY
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
1251
Date Publish Online
2024-02-10