Integrating plant ecological responses to climate extremes from individual to ecosystem levels.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
; 372(1723)2017 Jun 19.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28483872
ABSTRACT
Climate extremes will elicit responses from the individual to the ecosystem level. However, only recently have ecologists begun to synthetically assess responses to climate extremes across multiple levels of ecological organization. We review the literature to examine how plant responses vary and interact across levels of organization, focusing on how individual, population and community responses may inform ecosystem-level responses in herbaceous and forest plant communities. We report a high degree of variability at the individual level, and a consequential inconsistency in the translation of individual or population responses to directional changes in community- or ecosystem-level processes. The scaling of individual or population responses to community or ecosystem responses is often predicated upon the functional identity of the species in the community, in particular, the dominant species. Furthermore, the reported stability in plant community composition and functioning with respect to extremes is often driven by processes that operate at the community level, such as species niche partitioning and compensatory responses during or after the event. Future research efforts would benefit from assessing ecological responses across multiple levels of organization, as this will provide both a holistic and mechanistic understanding of ecosystem responses to increasing climatic variability.This article is part of the themed issue 'Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events'.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Cambio Climático
/
Ecosistema
/
Fenómenos Fisiológicos de las Plantas
/
Rasgos de la Historia de Vida
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
Año:
2017
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos