Biology subjects

Penuelas, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Penuelas, J..

9 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

An outline on the chemical phenotype flexibility of forest species: an eco-metabolomics study of Pinus uncinata along an altitudinal gradient

The altitudinal distribution of plant populations is mainly determined by a set of environmental variables, including temperature, water availability, UV radiation, among others, which gradually shift with elevation. Therefore, altitudinal gradients in ecology could serve as "natural laboratories" providing insights into the phenotypic plasticity of natural plant populations. Plants can adjust their phenotypes to cope with specific environments. However, the adjustment capacity directly depends on the plasticity and flexibility of plant phenotypes. Plants growing at the edges of their distribution gradients may present limited flexibility due to the sub-optimal environmental conditions they experience. We analyzed the foliar metabolomes of a mountain pine population in the Pyrenees to assess their chemical phenotypic flexibility along an altitudinal gradient. We found significant changes in foliar metabolomes across different altitudes, with the most contrasting foliar metabolomes observed at the lowest and highest altitudes. Trees growing at the boundaries of the altitudinal distribution considerably shifted their foliar metabolome compared to those at more central locations with an overall upregulation of sugars, amino acids, and antioxidants. Metabolomics analyses suggested higher oxidative activity at lower altitude, presumably due to the drier and warmer conditions. However, oxidative stress indicators were also detected at the tree line, potentially associated with chilling, UV, and tropospheric O3 exposure. In addition to the inability of many species to keep pace with the rapid speed of climate change by migrating upward in altitude or latitude to find more optimum environments, their migration to higher elevations may be hindered by the presence of other environmental factors at high altitudes. Eco-metabolomics studies along environmental gradients can provide crucial insights into the chemical phenotypic flexibility of natural plant populations while providing pivotal clues regarding which plant metabolic pathway are prioritized to cope with specific environments.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Land-use impacts on plant functional diversity throughout Europe

AimGlobal biodiversity loss resulting from anthropogenic land-use activities is a pressing concern, requiring precise assessments of impacts at large spatial extents. Existing models mainly focus on species richness and abundance, lacking insights into ecological mechanisms and species roles in ecosystem functioning. To bridge this gap, we conducted an extensive analysis of the impact of human land use on vascular plant functional diversity, across diverse land-use classes and bioregions in Europe, comparing it to traditional metrics. Location: Europe Time period: 1992-2019 Major taxa studied: Vascular plants MethodsIntegrating extensive databases of vegetation plots with spatial data on land use and land cover, we paired plots from areas actively used and modified by humans with plots from natural habitats under similar environmental conditions. Using species occurrences and traits, in each plot we computed three complementary functional diversity metrics (functional richness, evenness, and divergence), species richness and abundance. We assessed the impact of land use by comparing the metrics in the paired plots. ResultsOur findings revealed that, compared to natural habitats, anthropogenic land use exhibits lower functional richness and divergence but higher functional evenness across most land-use classes and bioregions. The response of functional richness was more marked than the other two metrics and especially pronounced in croplands and urban areas and in northern bioregions. Functional richness exhibited a pattern that did not fully overlap with the trend in species richness, providing useful complementary information. Main conclusionsWe provide a large-scale precise assessment of anthropogenic land-use impacts on functional diversity across Europe. Our findings indicate that: (i) human disturbance significantly alters plant functional diversity compared to natural habitats; (ii) this alteration goes in the direction of functional homogenization; (i) functional diversity metrics complement traditional metrics by offering deeper insights into the ecological mechanisms in response to anthropogenic land use.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Climate change has desynchronized insect and vegetation phenologies across Europe

Climate change is drastically affecting the phenologies of species worldwide, including shifts in development1-3. The potential impact of climate change on the synchronicity of plant-insect phenology is particularly concerning since the stability of pollination networks and food chains depends on their tight temporal dependencies4-6. Furthermore, the recently reported "insect armageddon"7 makes it urgent to establish trends and identify primary drivers of plant-insect phenological synchrony. Here, coupling high-resolution remote sensing and citizen science data across Europe over 34 years, we examine the differences in occurrence dates of 1,584 herbivorous insects across four orders and the corresponding dates of leaf unfolding. We find that 61.2% of the vegetation and insect phenologies have become highly asynchronous, with vegetation phenology advancing four-fold faster than insect phenology. These trends were modulated by insects life-cycles and taxonomic order. A primary driver of this phenological mismatch is the higher sensitivity of vegetation phenology than insect phenology to climate, which has prevented insects from matching the pace of plant phenological advance in the growing season. Our analyses provide a unique continental overview and underlying mechanisms of the asynchronicity between vegetation and insect phenologies, thus enhancing our ability to predict and manage its potential cascading ecological effects.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Leaf metabolic traits reveal hidden dimensions of plant form and function

The plant metabolome encompasses the biochemical mechanisms through which evolutionary and ecological processes shape plant form and function1,2. However, while the metabolome should thus be an important component of plant life-history variation3, we know little about how it varies across the plant kingdom. Here, we use the plant functional trait concept4 - a powerful framework for describing plant form and function5-7 - to interpret leaf metabolome variation among 457 tropical and 339 temperate plant species. Distilling metabolite chemistry into five discriminant metabolic functional traits reveals that plants vary along two major axes of leaf metabolic specialization - a leaf chemical defense spectrum and an expression of leaf longevity. These axes are qualitatively consistent for tropical and temperate species, with many trait combinations being viable. However, axes of leaf metabolic specialization vary orthogonally to life-history strategies described by widely used functional traits5-7, while being at least equally important to them. Our findings question classical trait6 and plant defense8 theory that predicts relationships between the leaf chemical phenotype, plant productivity, and pace of life. Moreover, we show that metabolic functional traits describe unique dimensions of plant life-history variation that are complementary to, and independent from, those captured by existing plant functional traits.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Functional traits trade-offs define plant population stability worldwide

O_LIEcological theory posits that temporal stability patterns in plant populations are associated with differences in species ecological strategies. However, empirical evidence is lacking about which traits, or trade-offs, underlie species stability, specially across different ecosystems. C_LIO_LITo address this, we compiled a global collection of long-term permanent vegetation records (>7000 plots from 78 datasets) from a wide range of habitats and combined this with existing trait databases. We tested whether the observed inter-annual variability in species abundance (coefficient of variation) was related to multiple individual traits and multivariate axes of trait variations (PCoA axes). C_LIO_LIWe found that species with greater leaf dry matter content and seed mass were consistently more stable over time (lower variability in species abundance) although other leaf traits played a significant role as well, albeit weaker. Using multivariate axes did not improve predictions by specific traits. C_LIO_LIOur results confirm existing theory, providing compelling empirical evidence on the importance of specific traits, which point at ecological trade-offs in different resource use and dispersal strategies, on the stability of plant populations worldwide. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

LOTVS: a global collection of permanent vegetation plots

Analysing temporal patterns in plant communities is extremely important to quantify the extent and the consequences of ecological changes, especially considering the current biodiversity crisis. Long-term data collected through the regular sampling of permanent plots represent the most accurate resource to study ecological succession, analyse the stability of a community over time and understand the mechanisms driving vegetation change. We hereby present the LOng-Term Vegetation Sampling (LOTVS) initiative, a global collection of vegetation time-series derived from the regular monitoring of vascular plants in permanent plots. With 79 datasets from five continents and 7789 vegetation time-series monitored for at least six years and mostly on an annual basis, LOTVS possibly represents the largest collection of temporally fine-grained vegetation time-series derived from permanent plots and made accessible to the research community. As such, it has an outstanding potential to support innovative research in the fields of vegetation science, plant ecology and temporal ecology.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Warming sensitivity of spring phenology of deciduous species lies in their bud energy budget

Spring phenology is mainly driven by temperature in extratropical ecosystems. Contrasting responses of foliar phenology to climatic warming, however, have been reported in recent decades, raising important questions about the role of other environmental constraints, especially light. In fact, temperatures differ substantially between plant tissues and the air because plants absorb and lose energy. Yet, phenology studies always substitute plant tissue temperature by air temperature. Here, we explored how solar radiation, wind, and bud traits might affect spring phenology of deciduous forests through the energy budget of buds. We show that air temperature might be an imprecise and biased predictor of bud temperature. Our current interpretation of the plant phenological response to warming should be reconsidered, which will require new observations of bud traits and temperature for accurately quantifying their energy budget.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Global Root Traits (GRooT) Database

MotivationTrait data are fundamental to quantitatively describe plant form and function. Although root traits capture key dimensions related to plant responses to changing environmental conditions and effects on ecosystem processes, they have rarely been included in large-scale comparative studies and global models. For instance, root traits remain absent from nearly all studies that define the global spectrum of plant form and function. Thus, to overcome conceptual and methodological roadblocks preventing a widespread integration of root trait data into large-scale analyses we created the Global Root Trait (GRooT) Database. GRooT provides ready-to-use data by combining the expertise of root ecologists with data mobilization and curation. Specifically, we (i) determined a set of core root traits relevant to the description of plant form and function based on an assessment by experts, (ii) maximized species coverage through data standardization within and among traits, and (iii) implemented data quality checks. Main types of variables containedGRooT contains 114,222 trait records on 38 continuous root traits. Spatial location and grainGlobal coverage with data from arid, continental, polar, temperate, and tropical biomes. Data on root traits derived from experimental studies and field studies. Time period and grainData recorded between 1911 and 2019 Major taxa and level of measurementGRooT includes root trait data for which taxonomic information is available. Trait records vary in their taxonomic resolution, with sub-species or varieties being the highest and genera the lowest taxonomic resolution available. It contains information for 184 sub-species or varieties, 6,214 species, 1,967 genera and 254 families. Due to variation in data sources, trait records in the database include both individual observations and mean values. Software formatGRooT includes two csv file. A GitHub repository contains the csv files and a script in R to query the database.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Varying thermal exposure, host-plant traits and oviposition behaviour across vegetation ecotones

Vegetation cover generates local microclimatic gradients in the understorey, being especially pronounced at narrow ecotones linking open and forested habitats (open-closed ecotones). They provide key habitats for multiple insect communities and may largely determine the exposure of herbivorous insects to the increasing impacts of climate change. We report parallel measurements of microclimatic variables, multiple host-plant traits, and oviposition behaviour in Mediterranean populations of two Pieris butterflies across ecotones of vegetation cover. Open microhabitats were significantly warmer, drier, and more exposed to thermal amplification, which increased temperatures to values affecting insect larval survival. Host plants advanced their reproductive phenology and were shorter. Open microhabitats also inhibited the development of shade-adapted plants (e.g. Alliaria petiolata), decreasing fruit production. In contrast, the reproduction of sun-adapted host plants (e.g. Lepidium draba) was vigorous in the open microhabitats and completely inhibited in closed microhabitats, which were exclusively inhabited by non-reproductive ramets. Key plant traits for the selection of oviposition sites by butterflies, such as foliar water and chlorophyll contents, varied significantly across the open- closed ecotones. Foliar water content was always lower in the open microhabitats, whereas foliar chlorophyll gradients differed between sun- and shade-adapted plants. The oviposition behavior of Pieris butterflies across the ecotones differed significantly between the thermotolerant species (P. rapae, preferentially selecting open microhabitats) and the thermosensitive species (P. napi, selecting microhabitats protected by vegetation cover), matching the values of thermal susceptibility estimated from parallel heat tolerance assays of the populations. The larvae of the thermotolerant Pieris species grew under completely different thermal conditions due to differential microhabitat selection, indicating marked interspecific differences in thermal exposure (5-10 {degrees}C). These results suggest that the impacts of global warming in these communities will likely be mediated by open-closed ecotones, which determine pronounced local variability in thermal exposure, oviposition placement, and host-plant traits affecting larval performance in summer.

ecology↗