RT Journal Article
T1 Unforeseen plant phenotypic diversity in a dry and grazed world
A1 Gross, Nicolas
A1 Maestre, Fernando T.
A1 Liancourt, Pierre
A1 Berdugo Vega, Miguel
A1 Martin, Raphaël
A1 Gozalo, Beatriz
A1 Valencia Gómez, Enrique
A1 Sánchez Pescador, David
A1 Gallego Rubalcaba, Juan Vicente
A1 López Teixido, Alberto
A1 Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Yoann
AB Earth harbours an extraordinary plant phenotypic diversity1 that is at risk from ongoing global changes2,3. However, it remains unknown how increasing aridity and livestock grazing pressure—two major drivers of global change4,5,6—shape the trait covariation that underlies plant phenotypic diversity1,7. Here we assessed how covariation among 20 chemical and morphological traits responds to aridity and grazing pressure within global drylands. Our analysis involved 133,769 trait measurements spanning 1,347 observations of 301 perennial plant species surveyed across 326 plots from 6 continents. Crossing an aridity threshold of approximately 0.7 (close to the transition between semi-arid and arid zones) led to an unexpected 88% increase in trait diversity. This threshold appeared in the presence of grazers, and moved toward lower aridity levels with increasing grazing pressure. Moreover, 57% of observed trait diversity occurred only in the most arid and grazed drylands, highlighting the phenotypic uniqueness of these extreme environments. Our work indicates that drylands act as a global reservoir of plant phenotypic diversity and challenge the pervasive view that harsh environmental conditions reduce plant trait diversity8,9,10. They also highlight that many alternative strategies may enable plants to cope with increases in environmental stress induced by climate change and land-use intensification.
PB Springer Nature
SN 0028-0836
SN 1476-4687
YR 2024
FD 2024-08-07
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/117787
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/117787
LA eng
NO Gross, N., Maestre, F. T., Liancourt, P., Berdugo, M., Martin, R., Gozalo, B., Ochoa, V., Delgado-Baquerizo, M., Maire, V., Saiz, H., Soliveres, S., Valencia, E., Eldridge, D. J., Guirado, E., Jabot, F., Asensio, S., Gaitán, J. J., García-Gómez, M., Martínez, P., et al. (2024). Unforeseen plant phenotypic diversity in a dry and grazed world. Nature, 632(8026), 808-814. https://doi.org/10.1038/S41586-024-07731-3
NO This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC Grant agreement 647038 1004 [BIODESERT]) and Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041). N.G. was supported by CAP 20–25 (16-IDEX-0001) and the AgreenSkills+ fellowship programme which has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement FP7-609398 (AgreenSkills+ contract). F.T.M. acknowledges support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the KAUST Climate and Livability Initiative, the University of Alicante (UADIF22-74 and VIGROB22-350), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020-116578RB-I00), and the Synthesis Center (sDiv) of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle–Jena–Leipzig (iDiv). Y.L.B.-P. was supported by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (MSCA-1018 IF) within the European Program Horizon 2020 (DRYFUN Project 656035). H.S. is supported by a María Zambrano fellowship funded by the Ministry of Universities and European Union-Next Generation plan. L.W. acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation (EAR 1554894). G.M.W. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP210102593) and TERN. M.B is supported by a Ramón y Cajal grant from Spanish Ministry of Science (RYC2021-031797-I). L.v.d.B. and K.T. were supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) Priority Program SPP-1803 (TI388/14-1). A.F. acknowledges the financial support from ANID PIA/BASAL FB210006 and Millenium Science Initiative Program NCN2021-050. A.J. was supported by the Bavarian Research Alliance for travel and field work (BayIntAn UBT 2017 61). A.L. and L.K. acknowledge support from the German Research Foundation, DFG (grant CRC TRR228) and German Federal Government for Science and Education, BMBF (grants 01LL1802C and 01LC1821A). B.B. and S.U. were supported by the Taylor Family-Asia Foundation Endowed Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology. P.J.R. and A.J.M. acknowledge support from Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional through the FEDER Andalucía operative programme, FEDER-UJA 1261180 project. E.M.-J. and C.P. acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020-116578RB-I00). D.J.E. was supported by the Hermon Slade Foundation. J.D. and A.Rodríguez acknowledge support from the FCT (2020.03670.CEECIND and SFRH/BDP/108913/2015, respectively), as well as from the MCTES, FSE, UE and the CFE (UIDB/04004/2021) research unit financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC). S.C.R. acknowledges support from the US Department of Energy (DE-SC-0008168), US Department of Defense (RC18-1322), and the US Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US government. E.H.-S. acknowledges support from Mexican National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT PN 5036 and 319059). A.N. and C. Branquinho. acknowledge the support from FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (CEECIND/02453/2018/CP1534/CT0001, PTDC/ASP-SIL/7743/ 2020, UIDB/00329/2020), from AdaptForGrazing project (PRR-C05-i03-I-000035) and from LTsER Montado platform (LTER_EU_PT_001). Field work of G.P. and J.M.Z. was supported by UNRN (PI 40-C-873).
NO European Commission
NO Generalitat Valenciana
NO Université Clermont Auvergne
NO King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
NO Universidad de Alicante
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Deutsches Zentrum für Integrative Biodiversitätsforschung
NO National Science Foundation (U.S.)
NO Ministerio de Universidades (España)
NO Australian National Research Council
NO Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
NO Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile)
NO Bavarian Research Alliance
NO Asia Foundation
NO Universidad de Jaén
NO Hermon Slade Raiatea Foundation
NO Fundação para a Ciência e a tecnologia (Portugal)
NO Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (Portugal)
NO Department of Energy (US)
NO Department of Defens (US)
NO Geological Survey (US)
NO Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (México)
NO Universidad Nacional de Río Negro (Argentina)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 abr 2025