Testing the environmental filtering concept in global drylands

2017/01/10 by Yoann Le Bagousse‐Pinguet, Nicolas Gross, Fernando T. Maestre +8 · 251 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Environmental resource management #Environmental science #Geography #Rangeland and Wildlife Management #Soil erosion and sediment transport

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/1365-2745.12735

published in Journal of Ecology 105(4), 1058-1069 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2017/01/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Summary The environmental filtering hypothesis predicts that the abiotic environment selects species with similar trait values within communities. Testing this hypothesis along multiple – and interacting – gradients of climate and soil variables constitutes a great opportunity to better understand and predict the responses of plant communities to ongoing environmental changes. Based on two key plant traits, maximum plant height and specific leaf area ( SLA ), we assessed the filtering effects of climate (mean annual temperature and precipitation, precipitation seasonality), soil characteristics (soil pH, sand content and total phosphorus) and all potential interactions on the functional structure and diversity of 124 dryland communities spread over the globe. The functional structure and diversity of dryland communities were quantified using the mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis of plant trait distributions. The models accurately explained the observed variations in functional trait diversity across the 124 communities studied. All models included interactions among factors, i.e. climate–climate (9% of explanatory power), climate–soil (24% of explanatory power) and soil–soil interactions (5% of explanatory power). Precipitation seasonality was the main driver of maximum plant height, and interacted with mean annual temperature and precipitation. Soil pH mediated the filtering effects of climate and sand content on SLA . Our results also revealed that communities characterized by a low variance can also exhibit low kurtosis values, indicating that functionally contrasting species can co‐occur even in communities with narrow ranges of trait values. Synthesis . We identified the particular set of conditions under which the environmental filtering hypothesis operates in drylands world‐wide. Our findings also indicate that species with functionally contrasting strategies can still co‐occur locally, even under prevailing environmental filtering. Interactions between sources of environmental stress should be therefore included in global trait‐based studies, as this will help to further anticipate where the effects of environmental filtering will impact plant trait diversity under climate change.

Citations

• Community assembly and shifts in plant trait distributions across an environmental gradient in coastal California
• Evidence for the Existence of Three Primary Strategies in Plants and Its Relevance to Ecological and Evolutionary Theory

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• Species diversity of bdelloid rotifer (Rotifera, Bdelloidea) in different areas in China, with a description of two new species. [europepmc]
• Distribution, species richness, and relative importance of different plant life forms across drylands in China. [europepmc]

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