Jenny Ordonez & Peter van Bodegom Discuss Strategies That Plants Use to Survive
Emerging Research FRonts Commentary, June 2011
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Article: A global study of relationships between leaf traits, climate and soil measures of nutrient fertility
Authors: Ordonez, JC;van
Bodegom, PM;Witte, JPM;Wright, IJ;Reich, PB;Aerts,
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Jenny Ordonez & Peter van Bodegom talk with ScienceWatch.com and answer a few questions about this month's Emerging Research Front paper in the field of Environment/Ecology.
Why do you think your paper is highly
cited?
This study is one of the first attempts to link plant traits to measured soil data on a large gradient of soil fertility in different regions of the world. This study showed the role of soil fertility as a habitat filter on plant trait expression, so far studies focused on linking traits to climate alone.
Does it describe a new discovery, methodology, or
synthesis of knowledge?
This article brings quantitative evidence on how plant traits change with soil fertility. There has been extensive research and qualitative conceptualizations on how plants respond to soil fertility, but the quantification of this response across different plant species and locations around the world was lacking.
Would you summarize the significance of your paper
in layman's terms?
In nature, the shape, size, thickness, and composition of various plant organs or of a whole plant give us hints of the strategies plants use to survive. These strategies (reflected in these plant traits) are shaped by biotic factors, as well as abiotic factors, such as soil fertility.
Coauthor Peter van Bodegom
In our study we could quantify how soil fertility determines the leaf traits of plants: in fertile soils plants tend to have thin, flimsy leaves with large amounts of nutrients, but with short life spans. On infertile soils plants have leathery, thick leaves with low nutrient content, but which are able to live for long periods. This pattern occurs independently of whether a plant is a tree a grass or an herb, and independently of the location in the world. Thus it reflects a general plant response to soil fertility.
How did you become involved in this research, and
how would you describe the particular challenges, setbacks, and
successes that you've encountered along the way?
This research was carried out as part of a project to study the effects of climate change on vegetation composition in The Netherlands. Traits reflect how abiotic factors, including climate, affect vegetation and may therefore be used to functionally link climate to vegetation.
The most challenging part of studying plant responses to abiotic factors (not only soil fertility) is to try to understand what drives trait variability: If we look at a small patch of grassland, we will see that there are many plants with different traits living in a relatively homogeneous soil. Thus, for any given level of soil fertility there is a wide variability in traits displayed by plants. This means that although the environment set the rules of the game, there is still plenty of room to play.
We tried to quantify the part of this trait variability that can be explained by adaptation to compete for other resources (light) and to endure biomass removal in disturbed sites. Still, understanding the drivers of trait variability needs further research.
Where do you see your research leading in the
future?
We will continue to work in linking multiple environmental drivers to multiple traits to better understand how traits are being selected, alone and in concert.
Do you foresee any social or political
implications for your research?
The aim of the research we pursue is to increase our understanding of how
vegetation responds to abiotic factors. This question (probably as old as
ecology itself), still remains within the realm of our fundamental
understanding of ecological processes. Nevertheless, we consider that a
better understanding of ecological processes is not a purely scientific,
but also an urgent societal matter if we are to develop effective policy
and conservation measures to maintain natural ecosystems.
Dr. Jenny Ordonez
Wageningen University
Law and Governance Department
Wageningen, the Netherlands
Dr. Peter van Bodegom
VU University Amsterdam
Department of Systems Ecology
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
KEYWORDS: ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING, IRRADIANCE, LEAF TRAITS, N MINERALIZATION, POTENTIAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION, RAINFALL, SOIL C:N, SOIL N, SOIL P, TEMPERATURE, PLANT COMMUNITIES, BIOGEOCHEMISTRY MODELS, TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS, CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK, CHEMICAL COMPOSITION, FUNCTIONAL TRAITS, MINERAL NUTRITION, ANALYSIS PROJECT, WILD PLANTS, NITROGEN.