IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-10453-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Functional traits and phenotypic plasticity modulate species coexistence across contrasting climatic conditions

Author

Listed:
  • Ignacio M. Pérez-Ramos

    (LINC Global)

  • Luis Matías

    (Universidad de Jaén
    Universidad de Sevilla)

  • Lorena Gómez-Aparicio

    (LINC Global)

  • Óscar Godoy

    (Universidad de Cádiz)

Abstract

Functional traits are expected to modulate plant competitive dynamics. However, how traits and their plasticity in response to contrasting environments connect with the mechanisms determining species coexistence remains poorly understood. Here, we couple field experiments under two contrasting climatic conditions to a plant population model describing competitive dynamics between 10 annual plant species in order to evaluate how 19 functional traits, covering physiological, morphological and reproductive characteristics, are associated with species’ niche and fitness differences. We find a rich diversity of univariate and multidimensional associations, which highlight the primary role of traits related to water- and light-use-efficiency for modulating the determinants of competitive outcomes. Importantly, such traits and their plasticity promote species coexistence across climatic conditions by enhancing stabilizing niche differences and by generating competitive trade-offs between species. Our study represents a significant advance showing how leading dimensions of plant function connect to the mechanisms determining the maintenance of biodiversity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ignacio M. Pérez-Ramos & Luis Matías & Lorena Gómez-Aparicio & Óscar Godoy, 2019. "Functional traits and phenotypic plasticity modulate species coexistence across contrasting climatic conditions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10453-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10453-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10453-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-10453-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shengman Lyu & Jake M. Alexander, 2022. "Competition contributes to both warm and cool range edges," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10453-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.