Skip to main content
Log in

Plant traits alone are good predictors of ecosystem properties when used carefully

  • Matters Arising
  • Published:

From Nature Ecology & Evolution

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Matters Arising to this article was published on 16 January 2023

The Original Article was published on 05 October 2020

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1: PFTs are better predictors of certain ecosystem properties.
Fig. 2: Correlation through time of FD and CWM across traits.

Data availability

The existing data used are available from the original publishers. The new data are archived on Figshare at the following link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19087640.v1.

Code availability

All code to reproduce the analysis has been archived on Figshare at the following link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19087640.v1.

References

  1. van der Plas, F. et al. Plant traits alone are poor predictors of ecosystem properties and long-term ecosystem functioning. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 4, 1602–1611 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Lavorel, S. & Garnier, E. Predicting changes in community composition and ecosystem functioning from plant traits: revisiting the Holy Grail. Funct. Ecol. 16, 545–556 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Funk, J. L. et al. Revisiting the Holy Grail: using plant functional traits to understand ecological processes. Biol. Rev. Camb. Phil. Soc. 92, 1156–1173 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Wright, I. J. et al. The worldwide leaf economics spectrum. Nature 428, 821–827 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Reich, P. B. The world-wide “fast–slow” plant economics spectrum: a traits manifesto. J. Ecol. 102, 275–301 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Dı́az, S. & Cabido, M. Vive la différence: plant functional diversity matters to ecosystem processes. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16, 646–655 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu, C., Li, Y., Yan, P. & He, N. How to improve the predictions of plant functional traits on ecosystem functioning? Front. Plant Sci. 12, 622260 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge members of the EDGE lab at the University of Gothenburg for stimulating discussions that inspired this comment. Special thanks to A. Bjorkman and R. Bjork for their feedback on the manuscript and to K. Happonen for help with data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

All authors conceived the study and collected the data. J.G.H. performed the analysis with help and advice from J.J.H. and W.H.A.O. All authors wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James G. Hagan.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hagan, J.G., Henn, J.J. & Osterman, W.H.A. Plant traits alone are good predictors of ecosystem properties when used carefully. Nat Ecol Evol 7, 332–334 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01920-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01920-x

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Navigation