Species-rich Plant Communities Research Articles

The relative contributions of rare and common species to the patterns of species richness in plant communities

Understanding how overall patterns of spatial variation in species richness are affected by species distributional is one of the key questions in species diversity research. In the present study, we investigated the relative contributions of common and rare species to overall plant species richness in the Liaodong oak (Quercus wutaishanica) forest, which is located in the Ziwu Mountains of Loess Plateau, northwestern China. Based on species frequency distribution, we developed rank sequences of the most common to the most rare and the most rare to the most common species. We then correlated the rank sequences with cumulative species distributions. Our results showed that common species had a higher correlation with the cumulative species distribution in comparison with rare species. Moreover, common species had stronger effects on species α diversity and species β diversity as compared with rare species. Although the number of rare species was greater than that of common species, the overall species richness pattern was better predicted by common species than rare species. Therefore, common species were confirmed to be good indicators of species richness pattern and need to be protected priority.

Caracterización basada en morfotipos de las comunidades de hongos micorrízicos arbusculares en un bosque seco tropical restaurado, Isla de Margarita-Venezuela

The mycorrhizal component of revegetated areas after ecological restoration or rehabilitation in arid and semiarid tropical areas has been scarcely assessed, particularly those made after mining disturbance. We evaluated and compared the presence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of a small area of restored tropical dry forest destroyed by sand extraction, with a non-restored area of similar age, at the peninsula of Macanao, Margarita Island (Venezuela). Our study was undertaken in 2009, four years after planting, and the mycorrhizal status was evaluated in four restored plots (8 x 12.5 m) (two were previously treated with hydrogel (R2 and R2'), and two were left untreated (R1 and R1'), and four non-restored plots of similar size (NR1 and NR1' with graminoid physiognomy with some scattered shrubs; and NR2 and NR2', with a more species rich plant community). Apparently the restoration management promoted higher arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species richness and diversity, particularly in restored soils where the hydrogel was added (R2 treatment). Soil of the NRI treatment (with a higher herbaceous component) showed the highest spore density, compared to samples of soils under the other treatments. Considering species composition, Claroideoglomus etunicatum and Rhizophagus intraradices were found in all treatments; besides, Diversispora spurca and Funnefformis geosporum were only found in non-restored plots, while members of the Gigasporaceae (a family associated with little disturbed sites) were commonly observed in the plots with restored soils. Mycorrhizal colonization was similar in the restored and non-restored areas, being a less sensitive indicator of the ecosystem recovery. The trend of higher richness and diversity of AMF in the restored plot with hydrogel suggests that this management strategy contributes to accelerate the natural regeneration in those ecosystems where water plays an essential role.

Evolutionary plant radiations: where, when, why and how?

Evolutionary plant radiations: where, when, why and how?

Inhibitory effects of soil biota are ameliorated by high plant diversity

The idea that plant communities with high species diversity are more stable, productive, and resistant to invasion at small spatial scales has become an important ecological paradigm. Recently, the role of soil biota has emerged as a major driver of this relationship between plant species diversity and ecosystem function. In greenhouse experiments, we found that soil collected from experimentally constructed species-rich plant assemblages (that originally contained between 10 and 16 species) promoted the growth of 4 native target plant species more than soil from species-poor communities (that originally contained between 2 and 5 species). Sterilization of soils from species-poor communities improved the growth of these target species more than sterilization of soils from species-rich plant communities, indicative that inhibitory soil biota had greater negative impacts on plant growth in low versus high diversity soils. These results suggest that strong soil biota effects in soils do not simply accrue in experimental monocultures, but can occur in low diversity assemblages that are more realistic of what occurs in nature. Our findings suggest a mechanistic explanation for the diversity-productivity relationship, and further support the importance of inhibitory soil biota as significant contributors to spatial and temporal patterns of abundance in natural plant communities through negative plant-soil feedback.

Early positive effects of tree species richness on herbivory in a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment influence tree growth.

Despite the importance of herbivory for the structure and functioning of species-rich forests, little is known about how herbivory is affected by tree species richness, and more specifically by random vs. non-random species loss. We assessed herbivore damage and its effects on tree growth in the early stage of a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment in subtropical China that features random and non-random extinction scenarios of tree mixtures numbering between one and 24 species. In contrast to random species loss, the non-random extinction scenarios were based on the tree species’ local rarity and specific leaf area – traits that may strongly influence the way herbivory is affected by plant species richness. Herbivory increased with tree species richness across all scenarios and was unaffected by the different species compositions in the random and non-random extinction scenarios. Whereas tree growth rates were positively related to herbivory on plots with smaller trees, growth rates significantly declined with increasing herbivory on plots with larger trees. Our results suggest that the effects of herbivory on growth rates increase from monocultures to the most species-rich plant communities and that negative effects with increasing tree species richness become more pronounced with time as trees grow larger. Synthesis. Our results indicate that key trophic interactions can be quick to become established in forest plantations (i.e. already 2.5 years after tree planting). Stronger herbivory effects on tree growth with increasing tree species richness suggest a potentially important role of herbivory in regulating ecosystem functions and the structural development of species-rich forests from the very start of secondary forest succession. The lack of significant differences between the extinction scenarios, however, contrasts with findings from natural forests of higher successional age, where rarity had negative effects on herbivory. This indicates that the effects of non-random species loss could change with forest succession.

Thyme and space invasion: Thymus vulgaris decreases exotic plant species diversity in Central Otago, New Zealand

Understanding the influence of spatial scale on ecological processes that occur with exotic plant invasion can help us identify underlying mechanisms of successful invasion. Here we studied spatial associations between Thymus vulgaris invasion and plant community species richness, composition and abundance at multiple spatial scales. These scales included among-sites, differences between aspects at the same site, and differences that occur between the inside, edge and outside of thyme stands at the same site. We examined how aspect (north or south) and site location influence spatial distribution patterns of thyme (cover and canopy height). We also quantified the relationship between variability in plant community composition inside, at the edge and outside of thyme-invaded communities and soil physical and chemical properties, cover of animal faeces, bare ground and schist, altitude and slope. We found lower species richness inside thyme-dominated communities, and this change was often greater on the north-facing slopes than the south-facing slopes. Plant species and plant functional groups had individualistic abundance patterns associated with thyme’s invasion. Exotic grasses, exotic forbs and native shrubs showed significant decreases in cover inside thyme stands, but native forb and native grass abundances were not significantly affected by thyme’s presence. Thyme density varied with aspect at some sites, generally being less dense on the south-facing slopes compared to the north-facing slopes. A subset of 15 environmental variables explained 54 % of plant assemblage variation inside, at the edge and outside of thyme-invaded communities, highlighting the important influence of site differences on invaded plant community assemblages.

Determining spatial heterogeneity in species richness of plant community

Species richness (number of species) per small quadrat is an important characteristic of plant communities that, along with cover and biomass, can be readily measured in field surveys. We show that variance in the number of species among quadrats can be used to determine the spatial heterogeneity of plant communities. Comparisons between variance estimated based on the observed number of species among quadrats, and variance calculated based on an assumption that all species are arranged randomly among quadrats, can describe the spatial structure of species richness. We show field examples with different degrees of spatial heterogeneity in species richness to demonstrate how to survey, analyze and interpret: three natural grasslands with low heterogeneity in China, and a weedy grassland community with high heterogeneity in Japan.

Competition, facilitation and environmental severity shape the relationship between local and regional species richness in plant communities

Understanding the relative contribution of local and regional processes to local species richness is an important ecological question and a subject of controversy between macroecologists and community ecologists. We test the hypothesis that the contribution of local and regional processes is dependent on environmental conditions and that the effect of regional processes should be the highest in communities from intermediate positions along environmental severity gradients due to the importance of facilitation. We used the recently developed log‐ratio method to analyze the relationship between local species richness (LSR) and regional species richness (RSR) for 13 plant communities from 4 habitat types of France (coastal sand dunes, oceanic heathlands, alpine grasslands, lowland calcareous grasslands). Each habitat type was split in 3–4 communities using multivariate analyses to identify the relative importance of stress, disturbance, competition, and facilitation functioning within the 13 communities. We found that the LSR/RSR relationship was highly dependent on environmental conditions with saturated communities occurring more frequently than unsaturated communities highlighting the relative importance of local drivers on species richness. We argued that competition was most likely the main source of community saturation whilst facilitation likely contributed to enhancing the importance of the regional species pool for all habitat types. However, the effect of facilitation might be stronger in the disturbed than in the stressed systems because unsaturated curves were only observed in the former conditions. In extreme conditions of disturbance LSR was only controlled by the intensity of disturbance. This effect was not observed in extreme stress conditions. Our study provides support for the emerging balance theory that both local and regional processes are important in nature with their relative contribution depending on environmental conditions. Additionally, this synthesis strongly suggests that facilitation contributes to an important process – the influence of regional species pool on local species richness.

Effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change.

Riparian zones support some of the most dynamic and species-rich plant communities in cold regions. A common conception among plant ecologists is that flooding during the season when plants are dormant generally has little effect on the survival and production of riparian vegetation. We show that winter floods may also be of fundamental importance for the composition of riverine vegetation. We investigated the effects of ice formation on riparian and in-stream vegetation in northern Sweden using a combination of experiments and observations in 25 reaches, spanning a gradient from ice-free to ice-rich reaches. The ice-rich reaches were characterized by high production of frazil and anchor ice. In a couple of experiments, we exposed riparian vegetation to experimentally induced winter flooding, which reduced the dominant dwarf-shrub cover and led to colonization of a species-rich forb-dominated vegetation. In another experiment, natural winter floods caused by anchor-ice formation removed plant mimics both in the in-stream and in the riparian zone, further supporting the result that anchor ice maintains dynamic plant communities. With a warmer winter climate, ice-induced winter floods may first increase in frequency because of more frequent shifts between freezing and thawing during winter, but further warming and shortening of the winter might make them less common than today. If ice-induced winter floods become reduced in number because of a warming climate, an important disturbance agent for riparian and in-stream vegetation will be removed, leading to reduced species richness in streams and rivers in cold regions. Given that such regions are expected to have more plant species in the future because of immigration from the south, the distribution of species richness among habitats can be expected to show novel patterns.

Plant diversity impacts decomposition and herbivory via changes in aboveground arthropods.

Loss of plant diversity influences essential ecosystem processes as aboveground productivity, and can have cascading effects on the arthropod communities in adjacent trophic levels. However, few studies have examined how those changes in arthropod communities can have additional impacts on ecosystem processes caused by them (e.g. pollination, bioturbation, predation, decomposition, herbivory). Therefore, including arthropod effects in predictions of the impact of plant diversity loss on such ecosystem processes is an important but little studied piece of information. In a grassland biodiversity experiment, we addressed this gap by assessing aboveground decomposer and herbivore communities and linking their abundance and diversity to rates of decomposition and herbivory. Path analyses showed that increasing plant diversity led to higher abundance and diversity of decomposing arthropods through higher plant biomass. Higher species richness of decomposers, in turn, enhanced decomposition. Similarly, species-rich plant communities hosted a higher abundance and diversity of herbivores through elevated plant biomass and C:N ratio, leading to higher herbivory rates. Integrating trophic interactions into the study of biodiversity effects is required to understand the multiple pathways by which biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning.

Neighbours matter: natural selection on plant size depends on the identity and diversity of the surrounding community

Plant diversity can affect ecological processes such as competition and herbivory, and these ecological processes can act as drivers of evolutionary change. However, surprisingly little is known about how ecological variation in plant diversity can alter selective regimes on members of the community. Here, we examine how plant diversity at two different scales (genotypic and species diversity) impacts natural selection on a focal plant species, the common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis). Because competition is frequently relaxed in both genotypically and species rich plant communities, we hypothesized that increasing diversity would weaken selection on competitive ability. Changes in plant diversity can also affect associated arthropod communities. Therefore, we hypothesized that diversity would alter selection on plant traits mediating these interactions, such as herbivory related traits. We grew 24 focal O. biennis genotypes within four different neighbourhoods: genotypic monocultures or polycultures of O. biennis, and species monocultures or polycultures of old-field species that commonly co-occur with O. biennis. We then measured genotypic selection on nine plant traits known to be ecologically important for competition and herbivory. Focal O. biennis plants were smaller, flowered for shorter periods of time, had lower fitness, and experienced greater attack from specialist predispersal seed predators when grown with conspecifics versus heterospecifics. While neither conspecific nor heterospecific diversity altered trait means, both types of diversity altered the strength of selection on focal O. biennis plants. Specifically, selection on plant biomass was stronger in conspecific monocultures versus polycultures, but weaker in heterospecific monocultures versus polycultures. We found no evidence of selection on plant traits that mediate insect interactions, despite differences in arthropod communities on plants surrounded by conspecifics versus heterospecifics. Our data demonstrate that plant genotypic and species diversity can act as agents of natural selection, potentially driving evolutionary changes in plant communities.

Density of insect-pollinated grassland plants decreases with increasing surrounding land-use intensity.

Pollinator declines have raised concerns about the persistence of plant species that depend on insect pollination, in particular by bees, for their reproduction. The impact of pollinator declines remains unknown for species-rich plant communities found in temperate seminatural grasslands. We investigated effects of land-use intensity in the surrounding landscape on the distribution of plant traits related to insect pollination in 239 European seminatural grasslands. Increasing arable land use in the surrounding landscape consistently reduced the density of plants depending on bee and insect pollination. Similarly, the relative abundance of bee-pollination-dependent plants increased with higher proportions of non-arable agricultural land (e.g. permanent grassland). This was paralleled by an overall increase in bee abundance and diversity. By isolating the impact of the surrounding landscape from effects of local habitat quality, we show for the first time that grassland plants dependent on insect pollination are particularly susceptible to increasing land-use intensity in the landscape.

Transférer le sol pour restaurer des communautés végétales: quelles leçons pour mesurer la résilience des pelouses sèches ? (Plaine de La Crau, Sud-Est de la France).

Ecological restoration can accelerate the resilience of degraded dry grasslands. Among the ecological restoration techniques used, soil transfer has already given promising results for restoring species-rich plant communities by providing the ability to recreate rapidly a habitat that corresponds to the reference ecosystem (the non disturbed dry grasslands). However, soil transfer is a destructive method, since it involves the use of non-renewable resources such as grassland soils of the donor sites that are the produce of centuries of interactions between climate, plants and animals. In south-eastern France, the plain of La Crau is an example of Mediterranean dry grasslands where the resilience of the steppe vegetation is extremely slow after land use changes which have impacted soil and vegetation. On 7th August 2009, a major oil leak occurred in the steppe center, destroying more than 13 acres of steppe vegetation. As a consequence, in 2010, the polluted soil was excavated and evacuated in a specialised dump. This operation was, then, combined with various in situ experiments of soil transfer, with exclusion of traditional sheep grazing management, to test (i) the importance of respecting the vertical organization of the main soil horizons and (ii) some opportunities to save this non-renewable resource. In May 2011, just after the soil transfer (72,000 tons) was achieved in April 2011 from a nearby quarry which extension had been authorised prior to the oil leak, different quadrats were materialized in the reference steppe vegetation around and in the restored site, with at the soil surface: the organic layer (top-soil, treatment ABC) with or without compaction (treatment ABCnc), the mineral layer (sub-soil, treatment BC) or the altered bedrock only (treatment C). After three years of vegetation monitoring, all the different treatments of soil transfer resulted in a rapid resilience of steppe vegetation in terms of floristic composition and plant species richness. Indeed, in 2013, the treatment with the transfer of mineral layer only at the soil surface, showed no significant difference in terms of plant species richness with the reference steppe plant community. Furthermore, there was a significant higher species richness for the treatments with the transfer of organic layer, compacted or not, in comparison with the reference steppe plant community. In addition, between 2011 and 2013, the natural colonisation by some ruderal opportunistic species was very low. Nevertheless, the reference steppe plant community organization was not restored for none of the different soil transfer treatments, as revealed by the calculation of the Bray-Curtis index. In addition, species abundances in the uncompacted organic layer, mean vegetation height and plant cover were significantly higher, than in the reference steppe plant community. Our results show that after only 3 years, the results of the different soil transfer treatments seem very promising. It appears from this three year monitoring that soil transfer of a mixture of the organic (top soil) and mineral (sub soil) layers, without final compaction, could be sufficient to boost the natural resilience of the typical plants of the reference steppe plant community. It might also be possible to increase the surface where the soil will be spread according to ratios of 1 to 2 or 1 to 3, instead of 1 to 1. This method will allow the protection of the steppe soil that is still a non-renewable resource. Because none of the different soil transfer treatments has allowed for the restoration of the integral steppe plant community, it seems now necessary to reinstall the traditional sheep grazing system with the aim to increase the restoration of the reference steppe plant community spatial organization.

Field-based observations of regional-scale, temporal variation in net primary production in Tibetan alpine grasslands

Abstract. Net primary production (NPP) is a fundamental process of natural ecosystems. Temporal variation of NPP not only reflects how communities respond to environmental fluctuations, but it also has important implications for regional carbon assessment. Unfortunately, studies based on field measurements to directly address this issue in the extreme environment of alpine grasslands are rare. In this study, we measured aboveground NPP (ANPP) and species richness in 40 sites across the Tibetan alpine grasslands from 2006 to 2009 to investigate the regional pattern of temporal variation in ANPP and to quantify the effects of climate fluctuation and biodiversity on this variation. The results showed that, during the 4-year period, the average ANPP varied 1.5-fold, from 83.9 to 125.7 g m−2, with a mean coefficient of variation of temporal variation of 36.6% across the 40 sites. Compared with other studies, alpine grasslands are not more sensitive to climate fluctuations than other grassland types. Aboveground NPP exhibited synchronous temporal variation and consistent spatial patterns over the 4-year period due to the regionally similar climatic fluctuations caused by monsoon-dominated plateau climate. Surprisingly, rainfall fluctuation had a more profound effect on the ANPP dynamics than temperature variation, which suggests that production in the Tibetan alpine grasslands is primarily driven by precipitation. Therefore, ANPP in the Tibetan alpine grasslands are mainly constrained by water availability. Finally, we found a reduction in interannual variation (i.e., CV) in ANPP with increasing species richness of plant communities, suggesting that diversity can stabilize community production in high-altitude grasslands.

Diversity of the Western Carpathian flysch grasslands: Do extremely species-rich plant communities coincide with a high diversity of snails?

Upland fringes of the White Carpathians (Czech Republic) are known to support grasslands with the world’s highest local plant species richness. We investigated whether this unusually high plant richness has a parallel in snail communities, whether patterns of species composition of snail and plant communities in grasslands co-vary and how they are affected by local environment and landscape history. We compared plant and snail communities of dry to mesic grasslands in three neigh bouring regions: (1) hilly lowland of the Central Moravian Carpathians, (2) upland fringes and (3) upland of the White Carpathians. Both snail and plant communities exhibited a strong gradient in species composition associated with altitude, annual temperature and precipitation, soil calcium and pH. However, there was no correlation between local species richness of plants and snails in individual plots. The upland fringes of the White Carpathians were richest in snail species, probably due to intermediate environmental conditions, supporting the occurrence of species with contrasting environmental requirements. The highest local numbers of plant species were also recorded there, although differences among regions were not significant. The regional species richness of plants was also highest in the upland fringes, whereas that of snails was highest in the hilly lowland. Similarities in the diversity patterns of plants and snails among regions suggest the importance of regional factors for local richness, although local abiotic factors, which are partly correlated with the three regions, also influence local species composition and richness.

Management defines species turnover of bees and flowering plants in vineyards

Effects of land use and management on plant and pollinator diversity at the local scale have been reported. However, there is little information available on the spatial and temporal aspects of plant-pollinator mutualist diversity relative to farm management. Information on these aspects will provide a better understanding of agri-environment schemes in a conservation context. 2 In the present study, we use additive partitioning (sum of within and among community diversity) to determine local (alpha) diversity and spatial and temporal (beta) diversity of bees and flowering plants in differently managed vineyards and adjacent natural vegetation in the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot. 3 Alpha, spatial beta and temporal beta diversities accounted for 18-61%, 19-72% and 7-36% of total bee diversity, respectively. Local diversity and spatial turnover of flowering plant diversity were significantly higher in the natural vegetation compared with organic and conventional vineyards. Spatial turnover of bees varied significantly with longitudinal coordinates of study sites. 4 We show that wildlife-friendly management practices ensure species-rich plant communities that promote pollinator diversity. We demonstrate the necessity to conserve mosaics of natural and semi-natural habitats in agricultural landscapes to conserve plant and bees. Our findings demonstrate the need to include spatial factors of habitats for effective conservation in this region.

Scale- and taxon-dependent biodiversity patterns of dry grassland vegetation in Transylvania

Patterns of biodiversity may vary across spatial scales and between taxonomic groups; therefore, specific studies are needed to provide insights into factors driving community structure. Semi-natural grasslands are among the most biodiverse ecosystems, providing a suitable model for examining key ecological mechanisms. We analysed dry grasslands in Transylvania (Romania), which harbor extraordinarily species-rich plant communities, including the global maxima for two small grain sizes. We sampled data of vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens in both nested and separate plots. We used soil, topographic, climatic, and land-use variables as predictors. Species richness at seven grain sizes (0.0001–100m2) was modeled as a function of these predictors by generalized linear models, followed by multimodel inference over all possible variable combinations with AICc. We also fitted power-law species–area relationships (SARs), both across the full range and for each transition of two subsequent plot sizes, as they provide a way of assessing β-diversity (through z-values) and its dependence on environmental variables. We found large differences in factors between scales and taxonomic groups, which generally supports the hypothesis that niche-related variables are important at very fine scales, while heterogeneity and disturbance-associated parameters become influential at larger scales. We explained the differences among the responses of taxonomic groups by their ecology. The exponents of the power-law SARs (z) for total richness were higher than in most other European dry grasslands, demonstrating that β-diversity is also extraordinary here. Further, the z-values showed strong and unexpected scale dependence, peaking at 0.01–0.1m2, and exponentially decreasing above these grain sizes. In conclusion, our study highlights the strong scale dependence of diversity-environment relationships, both in the case of α- and β-diversity, while emphasizing the importance to study multiple taxonomic groups.

Biotic interactions limit species richness in an alpine plant community, especially under experimental warming

The determinants of local species richness in plant communities have been the subject of much debate. Is species richness the result of stochastic events such as dispersal processes, or do local environmental filters sort species into communities according to their ecological niches? Recent studies suggest that these two processes simultaneously limit species richness, although their relative importance may vary in space and time. Understanding the limiting factors for species richness is especially important in light of the ongoing global warming, as new species establish in resident plant communities as a result of climate‐driven migration. We examined the relative importance of dispersal and environmental filtering during seedling recruitment and plant establishment in an alpine plant community subjected to seed addition and long‐term experimental warming. Seed addition increased species richness during the seedling recruitment stage, but this initial increase was cancelled out by a corresponding decrease in species richness during plant establishment, suggesting that environmental filters limit local species richness in the long term. While initial recruitment success of the sown species was related to both abiotic and biotic factors, long‐term establishment was controlled mainly by biotic factors, indicating an increase in the relative importance of biotic interactions once plants have germinated in a microhabitat with favourable abiotic conditions. The relative importance of biotic interactions also seemed to increase with experimental warming, suggesting that increased competition within the resident vegetation may decrease community invasibility as the climate warms.

Species diversity and life history traits in calcareous grasslands vary along an urbanization gradient

Calcareous grasslands are among the most species-rich plant communities in Europe with a particularly high nature conservation value. During the past centuries their distribution has markedly decreased, at least partly due to urbanization. Thus we investigated the effects of urbanization on species diversity along a spatio-temporal urbanization gradient from traditionally managed grassland to areas affected by urban developments, which was situated in the plains northwest of Munich, Germany. Both a RLQ analysis linking species and environmental traits, and a redundancy analysis of the plant community features showed that soil disturbance, soil sealing and mean temperature explained most of the environmental variation along the gradient. The species in urban habitats showed increased insect pollination, earlier flowering and prolonged seed longevity. While urbanization favored short-lived species with dysochorous dispersal, the reference grasslands harbored more wind-pollinated perennials with effective vegetative spread and relatively large, short-lived seeds. Compared to the urban sites, traditionally used grasslands had a higher species diversity, more threatened species and a lower proportion of non-natives. We conclude that even under conservation management, urban habitats are not capable of maintaining the original biodiversity. However, we also found threatened species occurring exclusively in urban sites. Hence, urbanization decreased the area and diversity of traditional calcareous grasslands, but it also established niches for endangered species which are not adapted to the living conditions in calcareous grasslands.

Species loss and gain in communities under future climate change: consequences for functional diversity

It is anticipated that anthropogenic climate change will lead to substantial reassembly within communities in coming decades as individual species shift their ranges to track optimal conditions for growth and survival. As species are lost and gained in communities, what are the consequences for functional trait diversity? Functional traits are the characteristics of species that affect individual performance and provide the vital link between biodiversity at the species level and ecosystem function. We investigated how projected changes in species richness in plant communities under climate change scenarios for the decade 2050 will affect the distribution and diversity of five functional traits. We aggregated range change projections made in Maxent for the decade 2050 across all species in the regional pool of littoral rainforest vines in eastern Australia (n = 163 species). The effect of richness changes on trait diversity was assessed in nine rainforest reserves along the east coast of Australia. Although richness was predicted to significantly decline across all communities, functional diversity remained stable, indicating a decoupling in response to climate change at these two different levels of biological organization. A high degree of redundancy in trait composition in communities may buffer against the loss of function in these plant communities. Scaling‐up our understanding of the impact of climate change from the species level to communities is a critical step towards developing conservation strategies aimed at preserving ecosystem function.