Search results for "functional trait"
showing 10 items of 32 documents
Traits mediate niches and co‐occurrences of forest beetles in ways that differ among bioclimatic regions
2021
Aim The aim of this study was to investigate the role of traits in beetle community assembly and test for consistency in these effects among several bioclimatic regions. We asked (1) whether traits predicted species’ responses to environmental gradients (i.e. their niches), (2) whether these same traits could predict co-occurrence patterns and (3) how consistent were niches and the role of traits among study regions. Location Boreal forests in Norway and Finland, temperate forests in Germany. Taxon Wood-living (saproxylic) beetles. Methods We compiled capture records of 468 wood-living beetle species from the three regions, along with nine morphological and ecological species traits. Eight …
sPlotOpen – An environmentally balanced, open‐access, global dataset of vegetation plots
2021
Datos disponibles en https://github.com/fmsabatini/sPlotOpen_Code
Climate and socio-economic factors explain differences between observed and expected naturalization patterns of European plants around the world
2021
Pouteau, R., et al.
Thirty years unmanaged green roofs: Ecological research and design implications
2016
Abstract The variations in species composition and assemblage of unmanaged simple-intensive green roofs in Hannover, Germany, were investigated over a thirty year period, in order to assess the persistence of the initial seed mixture and to evaluate floristic changes. The roofs were greened in 1985 with soil-based turf rolls sown with a mixture of five grasses (Festuca rubra, Festuca ovina, Agrostis capillaris, Lolium perenne and Poa pratensis). Three sets of 120 phytosociological releves, sampled in 1987, 1999 and 2014, have been compared to assess: (1) nestedness vs spatial turnover, (2) functional diversity and (3) the importance of vegetation dynamics on green roof performance and desig…
Morphological traits predict host-tree specialization in wood-inhabiting fungal communities
2020
Tree species is one of the most important determinants of wood-inhabiting fungal community composition, yet its relationship with fungal reproductive and dispersal traits remains poorly understood. We studied fungal communities (total of 657 species) inhabiting broadleaved and coniferous dead wood (total of 192 logs) in 12 semi-natural boreal forests. We utilized a trait-based hierarchical joint species distribution model to examine how the relationship between dead wood quality and species occurrence correlates with reproductive and dispersal morphological traits. Broadleaved trees had higher species richness than conifers, due to discomycetoids and pyrenomycetoids specializing in them. Re…
A multi-site study to classify semi-natural grassland types
2009
International audience; Calibration and validation of simulation models describing herbage growth or feed quality of seminatural grasslands is a complex task for agronomists without investing effort into botanical surveys. To facilitate such modelling efforts, a limited number of grassland types were identified using a functional classification of species. These grassland types were characterized by three descriptors required to model herbage growth or feed quality: the abundance-weighted mean leaf dry matter content across grass species, the relative abundance of grasses, and an estimate of species richness. We conducted a multi-site analysis over 749 grasslands from eight temperate region…
Identification of weed community traits response to conservation agriculture
2013
International audience; Conservation agriculture is designed to deliver more sustainable cropping systems by preserving agricultural soils with tillage abandonment. However, knowledge on the impacts of Conservation agriculture adoption on weed infestation level and potential shifts in the composition of weed communities appears low and contradictory. We used a trait-based approach to investigate whether there are shifts in values of a set of traits within weed communities following the adoption of Direct Drilling with cover-crop (DD) which is one of the Conservation Agriculture practices. Weed surveys were conducted across a range of times since conversion to DD in 52 winter wheat fields lo…
The Reproductive Strategy as an Important Trait for the Distribution of Lower-Trunk Epiphytic Lichens in Old-Growth vs. Non-Old Growth Forests
2021
(1) Research Highlights: The work studied the beta diversity patterns of epiphytic lichens as a function of their reproductive strategies in old-growth and non-old growth forests from the Mediterranean area. (2) Background and Objectives: The reproductive strategies of lichens can drive the dispersal and distribution of species assemblages in forest ecosystems. To further investigate this issue, we analyzed data on epiphytic lichen diversity collected from old-growth and non-old growth forest sites (36 plots) located in Cilento National Park (South Italy). Our working hypothesis was that the dispersal abilities due to the different reproductive strategies drove species beta diversity depend…
Towards a Unified Functional Trait Framework for Parasites
2019
Trait-based research holds high potential to unveil ecological and evolutionary processes. Functional traits are fitness-related characteristics of individuals, which are measured at individual level and defined without using information external to the individual. Despite the usefulness of the functional approach to understand the performance of individuals in ecosystems, and parasitism being the most common life-history strategy on Earth, studies based on functional traits of parasites are still scarce. Since the choice of functional traits is a critical step for any study, we propose a core list of seven functional traits of metazoan parasites, related to three universal challenges faced…
Towards Quantifying Non-Photosynthetic Vegetation for Agriculture Using Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy
2021
Non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) has been identified as priority variable in the context of new spaceborne imaging spectroscopy missions. In this study we provide a first attempt to quantify NPV biomass from these unprecedented data streams to be provided by multiple recently launched or planned instruments. A hybrid workflow is proposed including Gaussian process regression (GPR) trained over radiative transfer model (RTM) simulations and applying active learning strategies. A soybean field data set including two dates with NPV measurements on yellow and senescent (brown) plant organs was used for model validation, resulting in relative errors of 13.4%. This prototype retrieval model wa…