Climate Shapes and Shifts Functional Biodiversity in Forests Worldwide. Wieczynski, D. J., Boyle, B., Buzzard, V., Duran, S. M., Henderson, A. N., Hulshof, C. M., Kerkhoff, A. J., McCarthy, M. C., Michaletz, S. T., Swenson, N. G., Asner, G. P., Bentley, L. P., Enquist, B. J., & Savage, V. M. 116(2):587–592.
Climate Shapes and Shifts Functional Biodiversity in Forests Worldwide [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
[Significance] Functional traits directly link the performance of organisms to the environment and are used to scale up to effects on the overall structure, function, and diversity of ecosystems. Therefore, examining how the community composition of functional traits changes with the environment is key to understanding the role of climate in ecology. We provide a comprehensive assessment of relationships between climate and the functional composition of forests throughout the world. We identify the primary climatic drivers of functional composition/diversity across broad geographic gradients and show that forests may be experiencing functional shifts in response to global warming. These results illuminate important trait–climate relationships that help us understand the distribution of organisms throughout the world and anticipate ecosystem responses to future climate change. [Abstract] Much ecological research aims to explain how climate impacts biodiversity and ecosystem-level processes through functional traits that link environment with individual performance. However, the specific climatic drivers of functional diversity across space and time remain unclear due largely to limitations in the availability of paired trait and climate data. We compile and analyze a global forest dataset using a method based on abundance-weighted trait moments to assess how climate influences the shapes of whole-community trait distributions. Our approach combines abundance-weighted metrics with diverse climate factors to produce a comprehensive catalog of trait–climate relationships that differ dramatically – 27\,% of significant results change in sign and 71\,% disagree on sign, significance, or both – from traditional species-weighted methods. We find that (i) functional diversity generally declines with increasing latitude and elevation, (ii) temperature variability and vapor pressure are the strongest drivers of geographic shifts in functional composition and ecological strategies, and (iii) functional composition may currently be shifting over time due to rapid climate warming. Our analysis demonstrates that climate strongly governs functional diversity and provides essential information needed to predict how biodiversity and ecosystem function will respond to climate change.
@article{wieczynskiClimateShapesShifts2019,
  title = {Climate Shapes and Shifts Functional Biodiversity in Forests Worldwide},
  author = {Wieczynski, Daniel J. and Boyle, Brad and Buzzard, Vanessa and Duran, Sandra M. and Henderson, Amanda N. and Hulshof, Catherine M. and Kerkhoff, Andrew J. and McCarthy, Megan C. and Michaletz, Sean T. and Swenson, Nathan G. and Asner, Gregory P. and Bentley, Lisa P. and Enquist, Brian J. and Savage, Van M.},
  date = {2019-01},
  journaltitle = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
  volume = {116},
  pages = {587--592},
  issn = {0027-8424},
  doi = {10.1073/pnas.1813723116},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1813723116},
  abstract = {[Significance] Functional traits directly link the performance of organisms to the environment and are used to scale up to effects on the overall structure, function, and diversity of ecosystems. Therefore, examining how the community composition of functional traits changes with the environment is key to understanding the role of climate in ecology. We provide a comprehensive assessment of relationships between climate and the functional composition of forests throughout the world. We identify the primary climatic drivers of functional composition/diversity across broad geographic gradients and show that forests may be experiencing functional shifts in response to global warming. These results illuminate important trait–climate relationships that help us understand the distribution of organisms throughout the world and anticipate ecosystem responses to future climate change.

[Abstract] Much ecological research aims to explain how climate impacts biodiversity and ecosystem-level processes through functional traits that link environment with individual performance. However, the specific climatic drivers of functional diversity across space and time remain unclear due largely to limitations in the availability of paired trait and climate data. We compile and analyze a global forest dataset using a method based on abundance-weighted trait moments to assess how climate influences the shapes of whole-community trait distributions. Our approach combines abundance-weighted metrics with diverse climate factors to produce a comprehensive catalog of trait–climate relationships that differ dramatically -- 27\,\% of significant results change in sign and 71\,\% disagree on sign, significance, or both -- from traditional species-weighted methods. We find that (i) functional diversity generally declines with increasing latitude and elevation, (ii) temperature variability and vapor pressure are the strongest drivers of geographic shifts in functional composition and ecological strategies, and (iii) functional composition may currently be shifting over time due to rapid climate warming. Our analysis demonstrates that climate strongly governs functional diversity and provides essential information needed to predict how biodiversity and ecosystem function will respond to climate change.},
  keywords = {*imported-from-citeulike-INRMM,~INRMM-MiD:c-14678601,biodiversity,climate-change,elevation,forest-resources,functional-traits,global-scale,global-warming,latitude,open-data,sustainability,temperature,vapour-pressure,variability,warming},
  number = {2}
}
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