No general support for functional diversity enhancing resilience across terrestrial plant communities

• Published in: Global ecology and biogeography Vol. 33; no. 10
• Main Authors: Lipoma, Lucrecia, Kambach, Stephan, Díaz, Sandra, Sabatini, Francesco María, Damasceno, Gabriella, Kattge, Jens, Wirth, Christian, Abella, Scott R., Beierkuhnlein, Carl, Belote, Travis R., Bernhardt‐Römermann, Markus, Craven, Dylan, Dolezal, Jiri, Eisenhauer, Nico, Isbell, Forest, Jentsch, Anke, Kreyling, Jürgen, Lanta, Vojtech, Le Stradic, Soizig, Lepš, Jan, Manninen, Outi, Mariotte, Pierre, Reich, Peter B., Ruppert, Jan C., Schmidt, Wolfgang, Tilman, David, Ruijven, Jasper, Wagg, Cameron, Wardle, David A., Wilsey, Brien, Bruelheide, Helge
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.10.2024; Wiley
• Subjects: biogeography; Biological effects; biomass; botanical composition; Complementarity; Composition; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; data collection; disturbance; Diversity indices; Dominance; Ecological effects; Ecosystems; Environmental changes; Environmental Sciences; functional diversity; global change; Hypotheses; mass ratio hypothesis; Meta-analysis; niche complementarity hypothesis; Plant communities; Plants; plants (botany); Resilience; species; Species composition; statistical models; temporal variation; terrestrial plant communities; niche complementarity hypothesis; meta-analysis; functional diversity; mass ratio hypothesis; resilience; terrestrial plant communities
• ISSN: 1466-822X; 1466-8238; 1466-8238; 1466-822X
• DOI: 10.1111/geb.13895

Aim Understanding the mechanisms promoting resilience in plant communities is crucial in times of increasing disturbance and global environmental change. Here, we present the first meta‐analysis evaluating the relationship between functional diversity and resilience of plant communities. Specifically, we tested whether the resilience of plant communities is positively correlated with interspecific trait variation (following the niche complementarity hypothesis) and the dominance of acquisitive and small‐size species (following the mass ratio hypothesis), and for the context‐dependent effects of ecological and methodological differences across studies. Location Global. Time Period 2004–2021. Major Taxa Studied Vascular plants. Methods We compiled a dataset of 69 independent sites from 26 studies that have quantified resilience. For each site, we calculated functional diversity indices based on the floristic composition and functional traits of the plant community (obtained from the TRY database) which we correlated with resilience of biomass and floristic composition. After transforming correlation coefficients to Fisher's Z‐scores, we conducted a hierarchical meta‐analysis, using a multilevel random‐effects model that accounted for the non‐independence of multiple effect sizes and the effects of ecological and methodological moderators. Results In general, we found no positive functional diversity–resilience relationships of grand mean effect sizes. In contrast to our expectations, we encountered a negative relationship between resilience and trait variety, especially in woody ecosystems, whereas there was a positive relationship between resilience and the dominance of acquisitive species in herbaceous ecosystems. Finally, the functional diversity–resilience relationships were strongly affected by both ecological (biome and disturbance properties) and methodological (temporal scale, study design and resilience metric) characteristics. Main Conclusions We rejected our hypothesis of a general positive functional diversity–resilience relationship. In addition to strong context dependency, we propose that idiosyncratic effects of single resident species present in the communities before the disturbances and biological legacies could play major roles in the resilience of terrestrial plant communities.