Continental scale structuring of forest and soil diversity via functional traits

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Environmental Science
• Biogeochemistry

Background:

• Trait-based ecology aims to explain biodiversity patterns and ecosystem responses to environmental change mechanistically.
• A framework is needed to link ecosystem processes to functional traits across large spatial scales.
• Previous support for trait-based ecology across diverse taxa is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the relationships between climate, plant traits, and soil microbial traits across a latitudinal temperature gradient.
• To understand how temperature influences functional diversity and biogeochemical cycling in forest ecosystems.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a comprehensive assessment across multiple forest sites spanning a broad latitudinal temperature gradient.
• Analyzed linkages between climate variables, plant functional traits, and soil bacterial and fungal traits.
• Investigated associations between plant traits and soil microbial functional traits related to nutrient cycling.

Main Results:

• Temperature drove coordinated shifts in most plant and soil bacterial traits, but not fungal traits.
• Plant trait shifts were mechanistically linked to soil bacterial traits involved in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling.
• These findings support hypotheses of local temperature adaptation mediated by soil nutrient availability and metabolism.

Conclusions:

• Temperature is a key driver structuring functional diversity in forest plants and soil microbes.
• Functional traits couple microbial processes to ecosystem decomposition and nutrient cycling.
• The study underscores the importance of temperature in shaping forest ecosystem function and biogeochemical processes.