Abstract
Plants influence the atmosphere through fluxes of carbon, water and energy1, and can intensify drought through land–atmosphere feedback effects2–4. The diversity of plant functional traits in forests, especially physiological traits related to water (hydraulic) transport, may have a critical role in land–atmosphere feedback, particularly during drought. Here we combine 352 site-years of eddy covariance measurements from 40 forest sites, remote-sensing observations of plant water content and plant functional-trait data to test whether the diversity in plant traits affects the response of the ecosystem to drought. We find evidence that higher hydraulic diversity buffers variation in ecosystem flux during dry periods across temperate and boreal forests. Hydraulic traits were the predominant significant predictors of cross-site patterns in drought response. By contrast, standard leaf and wood traits, such as specific leaf area and wood density, had little explanatory power. Our results demonstrate that diversity in the hydraulic traits of trees mediates ecosystem resilience to drought and is likely to have an important role in future ecosystem–atmosphere feedback effects in a changing climate.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 538-541 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Nature |
| Volume | 561 |
| Issue number | 7724 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 27 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
Acknowledgements We thank M. Beninati, R. O’Dell and J. Gallafent for assistance with trait compilation. W.R.L.A. acknowledges funding from the University of Utah Global Change and Sustainability Center, NSF Grant 1714972 and 1802880 and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agricultural and Food Research Initiative Competitive Programme, Ecosystem Services and Agro-ecosystem Management, grant no. 2018-67019-27850. A.T.T. acknowledges funding from USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Postdoctoral Research Fellowship grant no. 2017-07164. This work used eddy covariance data acquired and shared by the FLUXNET community, including these networks: AmeriFlux, AfriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEuropeIP, CarboItaly, CarboMont, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada, GreenGrass, ICOS, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux-TERN, TCOS-Siberia and USCCC. The ERA-Interim reanalysis data are provided by ECMWF and processed by LSCE. The FLUXNET eddy covariance data processing and harmonization was carried out by the European Fluxes Database Cluster, AmeriFlux Management Project and Fluxdata project of FLUXNET, with the support of CDIAC and ICOS Ecosystem Thematic Center and the OzFlux, ChinaFlux and AsiaFlux offices.