There are two major mechanisms by which the abundance of a species may predict its trait expression. In this study, we therefore explore biotic and abiotic controls on abundance and trait expression, and the bi-directional relationship between them. Moreover, both the traits expressed by a plant and its abundance at a particular location are functions of its biotic and abiotic environment. Substantial intraspecific trait variation exists across communities (Siefert et al., 2015), which may be explained by a species‘ relative abundance in that community. However, much of this research has focused on whether plant traits can predict the abundance of a species (Shipley et al., 2006), and not the other way around. Understanding these trait–abundance relationships is critical for scaling from individuals to ecosystems, because the traits of more abundant species are likely to have the greatest impact on ecosystem processes (Grime, 1998). Plant traits are key to understanding the environmental conditions under which species can exist (Díaz et al., 1998), and there is mounting evidence that traits can also predict the abundance of a species relative to co-occurring species (Reader, 1998 Shipley et al., 2006 Cornwell & Ackerly, 2010 Laliberté et al., 2012). Taken together, these results imply that traits are predictive of abundance and vice versa, and these relationships depend on biotic interactions more than climate.Ī major goal of ecological research is to understand where species occur and how abundant they are. Finally, we show strong evidence for community trait similarity, whereby an individual‘s trait expression was positively correlated with the traits of its grass neighbors. Grasses were taller where they were more abundant, but the impact of abundance on SLA depended on community FEve. Neither abundance nor plant height were associated with abiotic variables, although SLA responded predictably to precipitation according to a bell-shaped curve. They were also more abundant in communities with low functional richness (FRic) and high functional evenness (FEve), perhaps because of the low resource-use efficiency of their neighbors and a lack of dominant grasses. Grass species had higher relative abundance in plots where they were taller and had higher SLA. ![]() We fit similar models predicting traits from relative abundance. Using multiple linear regression, we assessed whether abundance could be predicted from traits and the interactions between traits and both biotic and abiotic factors. We also quantified the relative abundance of each species as well as several biotic attributes of the neighboring grass community including total plant cover, species richness and evenness, community-weighted mean (CWM) traits, and functional diversity. ![]() We measured specific leaf area (SLA leaf area/dry mass) and plant height of 19 grass species (family: Poaceae) across 117 plots. Here, we ask whether the relationship between plant traits and relative abundance is modified by abiotic (e.g., climate and topography) and biotic factors (e.g., community taxonomic and functional diversity) across Californian grasslands. However, trait expression and the relative abundance of a species are also influenced by its abiotic and biotic environment. ![]() Plant traits can predict a species‘ relative abundance and its influence on ecosystem processes.
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