Climate regulates the functional traits – aboveground biomass relationships at a community-level in forests: A global meta-analysis

Abstract

The relationships between plant functional traits and aboveground biomass (AGB) stock have been explored across forest biomes. Yet, meta-analyses synthesizing our understanding regarding the influences of climate and soil on the functional traits – AGB relationships at a community-level in global forests are still unavailable. Here, we evaluated the latitudinal gradient in the functional traits –AGB relationships in forests, including functional trait diversity (FTD) – AGB (FTD-AGB), community-weighted mean (CWM) of conservative traits (CWMCT-AGB), CWM of acquisitive traits (CWMAT-AGB), and CWM of plant maximum height or diameter (FunDom-AGB), and then answer the question whether climate and soil conditions modulate the functional traits – AGB relationships in global forests. To do so, we selected those studies which reported the relationships of FTD and CWM with AGB stock (i.e. in Mg ha−1) rather with AGB productivity or growth (i.e. Mg ha−1 yr−1) at a community-level (i.e. forest plot). By using piecewise structural equation meta-modeling, we found that: (1) functional traits – AGB relationships at a community-level were driven by mean annual temperature (MAT), aridity and soil fertility. (2) Higher MAT and low aridity promoted FTD-AGB relationships but the opposite trend was true for CWMCT-AGB, whereas higher MAT promoted CWMAT-AGB and FunDom-AGB at high aridity levels. (3) The FunDom-AGB relationship increased with increasing the number of forest plots but other relationships declined. (4) The negligible or negative FTD-AGB relationships but the positive AGB-FunDom relationships were conspicuous across global forests, indicating the mass ratio effect in terms of functional dominance. Our meta-analysis suggests that functional dominance and conservative species' strategy in relation to favorable abiotic conditions should be promoted to increase AGB stock under global environmental changes.