Abstract
Our ability to understand and predict the response of ecosystems to a changing environment depends on quantifying vegetation functional diversity. However, representing this diversity at the global scale is challenging. Typically, in Earth system models, characterization of plant diversity has been limited to grouping related species into plant functional types (PFTs), with all trait variation in a PFT collapsed into a single mean value that is applied globally. Using the largest global plant trait database and state of the art Bayesian modeling, we created fine-grained global maps of plant trait distributions that can be applied to Earth system models. Focusing on a set of plant traits closely coupled to photosynthesis and foliar respiration—specific leaf area (SLA) and dry mass-based concentrations of leaf nitrogen (Nm) and phosphorus (Pm), we characterize how traits vary within and among over 50,000 ∼50×50-km cells across the entire vegetated land surface. We do this in several ways—without defining the PFT of each grid cell and using 4 or 14 PFTs; each model’s predictions are evaluated against out-of-sample data. This endeavor advances prior trait mapping by generating global maps that preserve variability across scales by using modern Bayesian spatial statistical modeling in combination with a database over three times larger than that in previous analyses. Our maps reveal that the most diverse grid cells possess trait variability close to the range of global PFT means.
Funder
U.S. Department of Energy
Australian Research Council
UM | Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota
RCUK | Natural Environment Research Council
European Research Council Synergy Grant
Spanish Government
Catalan Government
U.S. Department of Energy | Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research
WUR | Wageningen University
ARC | Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Australian Research Council
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Cited by
173 articles.
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