Which is a better predictor of plant traits : temperature or precipitation?

Angela T. Moles; Sarah E. Perkins; Shawn W. Laffan; Habacuc Flores-Moreno; Monica Awasthy; Marianne L. Tindall; Lawren Sack; Andy Pitman; Jens Kattge; Lonnie W. Aarssen; Madhur Anand; Michael Bahn; Benjamin Blonder; Jeannine Cavender-Bares; J. Hans C. Cornelissen; Will K. Cornwell; Sandra Diaz; John B. Dickie; Gregoire T. Freschet; Joshua G. Griffiths; Peter B. Reich; Ian J. Wright

doi:10.1111/jvs.12190

Which is a better predictor of plant traits : temperature or precipitation?

Angela T. Moles, Sarah E. Perkins, Shawn W. Laffan, Habacuc Flores-Moreno, Monica Awasthy, Marianne L. Tindall, Lawren Sack, Andy Pitman, Jens Kattge, Lonnie W. Aarssen, Madhur Anand, Michael Bahn, Benjamin Blonder, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Will K. Cornwell, Sandra Diaz, John B. Dickie, Gregoire T. Freschet, Joshua G. GriffithsPeter B. Reich, Ian J. Wright

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

362 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Question: Are plant traits more closely correlated with mean annual temperature, orwithmean annual precipitation? Location: Global. Methods: We quantified the strength of the relationships between temperature and precipitation and 21 plant traits from 447,961 species-site combinations worldwide. We used meta-analysis to provide an overall answer to our question. Results: Mean annual temperature was significantly more strongly correlated with plant traits than was mean annual precipitation. Conclusions: Our study provides support for some of the assumptions of classical vegetation theory, and points to many interesting directions for future research. The relatively low R2 values for precipitation might reflect the weak link betweenmean annual precipitation and the availability of water to plants.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1167-1180
Number of pages	14
Journal	Journal of Vegetation Science
Volume	25
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12190
Publication status	Published - 2014

Access to Document

10.1111/jvs.12190

Cite this

Moles, A. T., Perkins, S. E., Laffan, S. W., Flores-Moreno, H., Awasthy, M., Tindall, M. L., Sack, L., Pitman, A., Kattge, J., Aarssen, L. W., Anand, M., Bahn, M., Blonder, B., Cavender-Bares, J., Cornelissen, J. H. C., Cornwell, W. K., Diaz, S., Dickie, J. B., Freschet, G. T., ... Wright, I. J. (2014). Which is a better predictor of plant traits : temperature or precipitation? Journal of Vegetation Science, 25(5), 1167-1180. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12190

@article{b3bd93d8f98f4f33893f4f6142c9cc2d,

title = "Which is a better predictor of plant traits : temperature or precipitation?",

abstract = "Question: Are plant traits more closely correlated with mean annual temperature, orwithmean annual precipitation? Location: Global. Methods: We quantified the strength of the relationships between temperature and precipitation and 21 plant traits from 447,961 species-site combinations worldwide. We used meta-analysis to provide an overall answer to our question. Results: Mean annual temperature was significantly more strongly correlated with plant traits than was mean annual precipitation. Conclusions: Our study provides support for some of the assumptions of classical vegetation theory, and points to many interesting directions for future research. The relatively low R2 values for precipitation might reflect the weak link betweenmean annual precipitation and the availability of water to plants.",

author = "Moles, {Angela T.} and Perkins, {Sarah E.} and Laffan, {Shawn W.} and Habacuc Flores-Moreno and Monica Awasthy and Tindall, {Marianne L.} and Lawren Sack and Andy Pitman and Jens Kattge and Aarssen, {Lonnie W.} and Madhur Anand and Michael Bahn and Benjamin Blonder and Jeannine Cavender-Bares and Cornelissen, {J. Hans C.} and Cornwell, {Will K.} and Sandra Diaz and Dickie, {John B.} and Freschet, {Gregoire T.} and Griffiths, {Joshua G.} and Reich, {Peter B.} and Wright, {Ian J.}",

year = "2014",

doi = "10.1111/jvs.12190",

language = "English",

volume = "25",

pages = "1167--1180",

journal = "Journal of Vegetation Science",

issn = "1100-9233",

publisher = "John Wiley & Sons",