Late Quaternary climate legacies in contemporary plant functional composition

TY - JOUR

T1 - Late Quaternary climate legacies in contemporary plant functional composition

AU - Blonder, Benjamin

AU - Enquist, Brian J.

AU - Graae, Bente J.

AU - Kattge, Jens

AU - Maitner, Brian S.

AU - Morueta-Holme, Naia

AU - Ordonez, Alejandro

AU - Šímová, Irena

AU - Singarayer, Joy

AU - Svenning, Jens Christian

AU - Valdes, Paul J.

AU - Violle, Cyrille

PY - 2018/10/1

Y1 - 2018/10/1

N2 - The functional composition of plant communities is commonly thought to be determined by contemporary climate. However, if rates of climate-driven immigration and/or exclusion of species are slow, then contemporary functional composition may be explained by paleoclimate as well as by contemporary climate. We tested this idea by coupling contemporary maps of plant functional trait composition across North and South America to paleoclimate means and temporal variation in temperature and precipitation from the Last Interglacial (120 ka) to the present. Paleoclimate predictors strongly improved prediction of contemporary functional composition compared to contemporary climate predictors, with a stronger influence of temperature in North America (especially during periods of ice melting) and of precipitation in South America (across all times). Thus, climate from tens of thousands of years ago influences contemporary functional composition via slow assemblage dynamics.

AB - The functional composition of plant communities is commonly thought to be determined by contemporary climate. However, if rates of climate-driven immigration and/or exclusion of species are slow, then contemporary functional composition may be explained by paleoclimate as well as by contemporary climate. We tested this idea by coupling contemporary maps of plant functional trait composition across North and South America to paleoclimate means and temporal variation in temperature and precipitation from the Last Interglacial (120 ka) to the present. Paleoclimate predictors strongly improved prediction of contemporary functional composition compared to contemporary climate predictors, with a stronger influence of temperature in North America (especially during periods of ice melting) and of precipitation in South America (across all times). Thus, climate from tens of thousands of years ago influences contemporary functional composition via slow assemblage dynamics.

KW - climate change

KW - disequilibrium

KW - exclusion

KW - functional diversity

KW - functional trait

KW - Holocene

KW - immigration

KW - lag

KW - legacy

KW - Pleistocene

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051029905&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/gcb.14375

DO - 10.1111/gcb.14375

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 30058198

AN - SCOPUS:85051029905

SN - 1354-1013

VL - 24

SP - 4827

EP - 4840

JO - Global Change Biology

JF - Global Change Biology

IS - 10

ER -