All Outputs (44)

The status and future of essential geodiversity variables (2024)
Journal Article
Schrodt, F., Vernham, G., Bailey, J., Field, R., Gordon, J. E., Gray, M., …Kissling, W. D. (2024). The status and future of essential geodiversity variables. Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 382(2269), Article 20230052. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2023.0052

Rapid environmental change, natural resource overconsumption and increasing concerns about ecological sustainability have led to the development of 'Essential Variables' (EVs). EVs are harmonized data products to inform policy and to enable effective... Read More about The status and future of essential geodiversity variables.

Widespread shifts in body size within populations and assemblages (2023)
Journal Article
Martins, I. S., Schrodt, F., Blowes, S. A., Bates, A. E., Bjorkman, A. D., Brambilla, V., …Dornelas, M. (2023). Widespread shifts in body size within populations and assemblages. Science, 381(6662), 1067-1071. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adg6006

Biotic responses to global change include directional shifts in organismal traits. Body size, an integrative trait that determines demographic rates and ecosystem functions, is thought to be shrinking in the Anthropocene. Here, we assessed the preval... Read More about Widespread shifts in body size within populations and assemblages.

Leaf metabolic traits reveal hidden dimensions of plant form and function (2023)
Journal Article
Walker, T. W. N., Schrodt, F., Allard, P.-M., Defossez, E., Jassey, V. E. J., Schuman, M. C., …Peñuelas, J. (2023). Leaf metabolic traits reveal hidden dimensions of plant form and function. Science Advances, 9(35), Article eadi402. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adi4029

The metabolome is the biochemical basis of plant form and function, but we know little about its macroecological variation across the plant kingdom. Here, we used the plant functional trait concept to interpret leaf metabolome variation among 457 tro... Read More about Leaf metabolic traits reveal hidden dimensions of plant form and function.

Applying the concept of niche breadth to understand urban tree mortality in the UK (2023)
Journal Article
Kim, E. H., Hitchmough, J. D., Cameron, R. W., Schrodt, F., Martin, K. W., & Cubey, R. (2023). Applying the concept of niche breadth to understand urban tree mortality in the UK. Science of the Total Environment, 902, Article 166304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166304

Accelerated climate change has raised concerns about heightened vulnerability of urban trees, spurring the need to reevaluate their suitability. The urgency has also driven the widespread application of climatic niche-based models. In particular, the... Read More about Applying the concept of niche breadth to understand urban tree mortality in the UK.

Effects of climate change on the distribution of plant species and plant functional strategies on the Canary Islands (2023)
Journal Article
Hanz, D. M., Cutts, V., Barajas‐Barbosa, M. P., Algar, A., Beierkuhnlein, C., Collart, F., …Irl, S. D. H. (2023). Effects of climate change on the distribution of plant species and plant functional strategies on the Canary Islands. Diversity and Distributions, 29(9), 1157-1171. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13750

Aim: Oceanic islands possess unique floras with high proportions of endemic species. Island floras are expected to be severely affected by changing climatic conditions as species on islands have limited distribution ranges and small population sizes... Read More about Effects of climate change on the distribution of plant species and plant functional strategies on the Canary Islands.

Imputing missing data in plant traits: A guide to improve gap‐filling (2023)
Journal Article
Joswig, J. S., Kattge, J., Kraemer, G., Mahecha, M. D., Rüger, N., Schaepman, M. E., …Schuman, M. C. (2023). Imputing missing data in plant traits: A guide to improve gap‐filling. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 32(8), 1395-1408. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13695

Aim: Globally distributed plant trait data are increasingly used to understand relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem processes. However, global trait databases are sparse because they are compiled from many, mostly small databases. This sp... Read More about Imputing missing data in plant traits: A guide to improve gap‐filling.

Global beta-diversity of angiosperm trees is shaped by Quaternary climate change (2023)
Journal Article
Xu, W.-B., Guo, W.-Y., Serra-Diaz, J. M., Schrodt, F., Eiserhardt, W. L., Enquist, B. J., …Ordonez, A. (2023). Global beta-diversity of angiosperm trees is shaped by Quaternary climate change. Science Advances, 9(14), Article eadd8553. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add8553

As Earth’s climate has varied strongly through geological time, studying the impacts of past climate change on biodiversity helps to understand the risks from future climate change. However, it remains unclear how paleoclimate shapes spatial variatio... Read More about Global beta-diversity of angiosperm trees is shaped by Quaternary climate change.

Understanding trait diversity: the role of geodiversity (2023)
Journal Article
Vernham, G., Bailey, J. J., Chase, J. M., Hjort, J., Field, R., & Schrodt, F. (2023). Understanding trait diversity: the role of geodiversity. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 38(8), 736-748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.02.010

Geodiversity – the abiotic heterogeneity of Earth's (sub)surface – is gaining recognition for its ecological links to biodiversity. However, theoretical and conceptual knowledge of geodiversity–trait diversity relationships is currently lacking and c... Read More about Understanding trait diversity: the role of geodiversity.

Traits of dominant plant species drive normalized difference vegetation index in grasslands globally (2023)
Journal Article
Engel, T., Bruelheide, H., Hoss, D., Sabatini, F. M., Altman, J., Arfin-Khan, M. A., …Pillar, V. (2023). Traits of dominant plant species drive normalized difference vegetation index in grasslands globally. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 32(5), 695-706. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13644

Aim: Theoretical, experimental and observational studies have shown that biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships are influenced by functional community structure through two mutually non-exclusive mechanisms: (1) the dominance effect (... Read More about Traits of dominant plant species drive normalized difference vegetation index in grasslands globally.

Links to rare climates do not translate into distinct traits for island endemics (2023)
Journal Article
Cutts, V., Hanz, D. M., Barajas-Barbosa, M. P., Schrodt, F., Steinbauer, M. J., Beierkuhnlein, C., …Algar, A. C. (2023). Links to rare climates do not translate into distinct traits for island endemics. Ecology Letters, 26(4), 504-515. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14169

Current models of island biogeography treat endemic and non-endemic species as if they were functionally equivalent, focussing primarily on species richness. Thus, the functional composition of island biotas in relation to island biogeographical vari... Read More about Links to rare climates do not translate into distinct traits for island endemics.

Ecosystem Restoration: What, Why, How, and Where? (2022)
Journal Article
Panter, C. T., Baines, O., Draper, E. L., Hunt, L., Schrodt, F., Veeken, A., …Field, R. (2022). Ecosystem Restoration: What, Why, How, and Where?. Frontiers for Young Minds, 10, Article 856833. https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2022.856833

Our world contains many ecosystems, from tropical forests to coral reefs to urban parks. Ecosystems help us in important ways, including cleaning our air and water, storing carbon, and producing food. People have been shaping most ecosystems for at l... Read More about Ecosystem Restoration: What, Why, How, and Where?.

Global patterns of vascular plant alpha diversity (2022)
Journal Article
Sabatini, F. M., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Jandt, U., Chytrý, M., Field, R., Kessler, M., …Bruelheide, H. (2022). Global patterns of vascular plant alpha diversity. Nature Communications, 13(1), Article 4683. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32063-z

Global patterns of regional (gamma) plant diversity are relatively well known, but whether these patterns hold for local communities, and the dependence on spatial grain, remain controversial. Using data on 170,272 georeferenced local plant assemblag... Read More about Global patterns of vascular plant alpha diversity.

Pollen‐based reconstruction reveals the impact of the onset of agriculture on plant functional trait composition (2022)
Journal Article
Veeken, A., Santos, M. J., McGowan, S., Davies, A. L., & Schrodt, F. (2022). Pollen‐based reconstruction reveals the impact of the onset of agriculture on plant functional trait composition. Ecology Letters, 25(9), 1937-1951. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14063

The onset of agriculture improved the capacity of ecosystems to produce food, but inadvertently altered other vital ecosystem functions. Plant traits play a central role in determining ecosystem properties, therefore we investigated how the onset of... Read More about Pollen‐based reconstruction reveals the impact of the onset of agriculture on plant functional trait composition.

High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure (2022)
Journal Article
Guo, W., Serra-Diaz, J. M., Schrodt, F., Eiserhardt, W. L., Maitner, B. S., Merow, C., …Svenning, J. (2022). High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(25), Article e2026733119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2026733119

Safeguarding Earth’s tree diversity is a conservation priority due to the importance of trees for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services such as carbon sequestration. Here, we improve the foundation for effective conservation of global tre... Read More about High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure.

A possible role for river restoration enhancing biodiversity through interaction with wildfire (2022)
Journal Article
Pugh, B. E., Colley, M., Dugdale, S. J., Edwards, P., Flitcroft, R., Holz, A., …Field, R. (2022). A possible role for river restoration enhancing biodiversity through interaction with wildfire. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 31(10), 1990-2004. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13555

Background: Historically, wildfire regimes produced important landscape-scale disturbances in many regions globally. The “pyrodiversity begets biodiversity” hypothesis suggests that wildfires that generate temporally and spatially heterogeneous mosai... Read More about A possible role for river restoration enhancing biodiversity through interaction with wildfire.

Functional Traits 2.0: The power of the metabolome for ecology (2022)
Journal Article
Walker, T. W. N., Alexander, J. M., Allard, P., Baines, O., Baldy, V., Bardgett, R. D., …Salguero‐Gómez, R. (2022). Functional Traits 2.0: The power of the metabolome for ecology. Journal of Ecology, 110(1), 4-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13826

A major aim of ecology is to upscale attributes of individuals to understand processes at population, community and ecosystem scales. Such attributes are typically described using functional traits, that is, standardised characteristics that impact f... Read More about Functional Traits 2.0: The power of the metabolome for ecology.

Climatic and soil factors explain the two-dimensional spectrum of global plant trait variation (2021)
Journal Article
Joswig, J. S., Wirth, C., Schuman, M. C., Kattge, J., Reu, B., Wright, I. J., …Mahecha, M. D. (2021). Climatic and soil factors explain the two-dimensional spectrum of global plant trait variation. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 6, 36-50. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01616-8

Plant functional traits can predict community assembly and ecosystem functioning and are thus widely used in global models of vegetation dynamics and land–climate feedbacks. Still, we lack a global understanding of how land and climate affect plant t... Read More about Climatic and soil factors explain the two-dimensional spectrum of global plant trait variation.

Mainstreaming Climate Change Education in UK Higher Education Institutions (2021)
Preprint / Working Paper
Thew, H., Graves, C., Reay, D., Smith, S., Petersen, K., Bomberg, E., …Worsfold, N. Mainstreaming Climate Change Education in UK Higher Education Institutions

Key messages
• Mainstreaming Climate Change Education (CCE) across all learning and operational activities enables Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to better serve their core purpose of preparing learners for their roles in work and wider societ... Read More about Mainstreaming Climate Change Education in UK Higher Education Institutions.

sPlotOpen – An environmentally balanced, open-access, global dataset of vegetation plots (2021)
Journal Article
Sabatini, F. M., Lenoir, J., Hattab, T., Arnst, E. A., Chytrý, M., Dengler, J., …Bruelheide, H. (2021). sPlotOpen – An environmentally balanced, open-access, global dataset of vegetation plots. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 30(9), 1740-1764. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13346

Motivation: Assessing biodiversity status and trends in plant communities is critical for understanding, quantifying and predicting the effects of global change on ecosystems. Vegetation plots record the occurrence or abundance of all plant species c... Read More about sPlotOpen – An environmentally balanced, open-access, global dataset of vegetation plots.

Root traits explain plant species distributions along climatic gradients yet challenge the nature of ecological trade-offs (2021)
Journal Article
Laughlin, D. C., Mommer, L., Sabatini, F. M., Bruelheide, H., Kuyper, T. W., McCormack, M. L., …Weigelt, A. (2021). Root traits explain plant species distributions along climatic gradients yet challenge the nature of ecological trade-offs. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 5(8), 1123-1134. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01471-7

Ecological theory is built on trade-offs, where trait differences among species evolved as adaptations to different environments. Trade-offs are often assumed to be bidirectional, where opposite ends of a gradient in trait values confer advantages in... Read More about Root traits explain plant species distributions along climatic gradients yet challenge the nature of ecological trade-offs.