Luke Browne, Lars Markesteijn, Eric Manzané-Pinzón, S. Joseph Wright, Robert Bagchi, Bettina M. J. Engelbrecht, F. Andrew Jones, Liza S. Comita
This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here.
Imagine there was a way to quickly and easily measure the basic characteristics of a plant, like the size of its leaves or the density of its wood, and then use those measurements to predict how well that plant would survive and grow in different environments. Ecologists call these characteristics “functional traits” and for years have been searching for a way to do this. Why is this important? In part because being able to predict the survival and growth of a plant based on simple traits would allow us to understand how changing environmental conditions across the globe will impact plants, which we depend on for wellbeing and survival. However, this is a very difficult thing to do, in part because the environment itself can influence how a functional trait of a plant is related to survival and growth.
In this study, we tried to better understand how the environment influences the relationships between functional traits and survival and growth by measuring the survival and growth of tropical tree seedlings across the Isthmus of Panama, which contains hundreds of tree species and encompasses a wide variation in both soil fertility and drought conditions. We found that the degree to which many functional traits of plants were related to survival and growth varied across forests, meaning that a functional trait that was positively related to survival in one forest might not be positively related to survival in a different forest, or perhaps the relationship is not as strong. In a few cases, soil nutrient availability, or more specifically soil phosphorus, was related to how strongly a functional trait could predict plant survival. Future studies that are better able to understand what is causing the variation in the relationships between functional traits and plant survival and growth will likely help ecologists understand how changing environmental conditions will impact plants in the future.
Functional Ecology: Plain Language Summaries 