Biology subjects

Pärtel, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Pärtel, M..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Nutrient enrichment and herbivore exclusion disrupt the climate-driven balance between C3 and C4 plants in grasslands

The distribution of plants with different photosynthetic pathways is strongly structured by climate, with C3 plants favoured in cooler temperate regions and C4 plants in hotter, high-light conditions. The relative abundance of C3 and C4 plants across the world has cascading impacts on local food webs, decomposition, productivity and other vital ecosystem processes. Human impacts, including climate change, changes to herbivore assemblages, and increased nutrient availability, are shifting the optimal conditions for important C3 and C4-dominated ecosystems and crops. Using 3,184 plot-level observations from 112 sites across six continents, we reveal how chronic nutrient enrichment disrupts the climate-driven balance between C3 and C4 plants in grasslands. We found that, consistent with expectations, the global distribution of C4 plants was strongly related to climate. However, experimental nutrient addition reduced the relative cover of C4 species, with the strongest declines found when nitrogen and phosphorus were added together. Herbivore exclusion had no consistent effect on C4 plants. Our results provide global experimental evidence that elevated nutrients, particularly nitrogen, alter competitive outcomes among plant functional types to suppress C4 grasses, even in climatically optimal conditions. This has major implications for predicting vegetation responses to global change, with consequences for carbon cycling, primary productivity, herbivore dynamics, and food security.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Functional traits trade-offs define plant population stability worldwide

O_LIEcological theory posits that temporal stability patterns in plant populations are associated with differences in species ecological strategies. However, empirical evidence is lacking about which traits, or trade-offs, underlie species stability, specially across different ecosystems. C_LIO_LITo address this, we compiled a global collection of long-term permanent vegetation records (>7000 plots from 78 datasets) from a wide range of habitats and combined this with existing trait databases. We tested whether the observed inter-annual variability in species abundance (coefficient of variation) was related to multiple individual traits and multivariate axes of trait variations (PCoA axes). C_LIO_LIWe found that species with greater leaf dry matter content and seed mass were consistently more stable over time (lower variability in species abundance) although other leaf traits played a significant role as well, albeit weaker. Using multivariate axes did not improve predictions by specific traits. C_LIO_LIOur results confirm existing theory, providing compelling empirical evidence on the importance of specific traits, which point at ecological trade-offs in different resource use and dispersal strategies, on the stability of plant populations worldwide. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Combining taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity reveals new global priority areas for tetrapod conservation

Human activities have eroded biodiversity, yet the varying influence of past versus recent impacts across the distinct facets of biodiversity is still poorly understood. Weighting taxonomic information by phylogenetic and functional diversity in a novel multifaceted index (-Diversity) across more than 17,000 tetrapod species, we show the geography of multifaceted tetrapod diversity, and the role of climate stability and water-energy dynamics coupled with the timing of inception of agriculture in explaining broad-scale patterns of tetrapod diversity. In particular, the varying geography of the timing of agriculture expansion since the Neolithic affected -Diversity at least as much as recent human impacts, especially in birds, mammals, and reptiles, suggesting that human imprints may have shaped tetrapod diversity for millennia through legacy effects of past land use modifications. The long-lasting effect of humans will only accelerate, as the most diverse areas for -Diversity (tropical Africa, South East Asia and Central and South America) are disproportionally exposed to both future climate and land-use change.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Investigating the drivers of macro-fungal dark diversity using LiDAR

Despite the important role of fungi for ecosystems, relatively little is known about the factors underlying the dynamics of their diversity. Moreover, studies do not typically consider their dark diversity: the species absent from an otherwise suitable site. Here, we examined potential drivers of local fungal dark diversity in temperate woodland and open habitats using LiDAR and in-situ field measurements, combined with a systematically collected and geographically comprehensive macro-fungi and plant data set. For the first time, we also estimated species pools of fungi by considering both plant and fungi co-occurrences. The most important LiDAR variables for modelling fungal dark diversity were amplitude and echo ratio, which are both thought to represent vegetation structure. These results suggest that the local fungal dark diversity is highest in production forests like plantations and lowest in more open forests and in open habitats with little woody vegetation. Plant species richness was the strongest explanatory factor overall and negatively correlated with local fungal dark diversity. Soil fertility showed a positive relationship with dark diversity in open habitats. These findings may indicate that the local dark diversity of macro-fungi is highest in areas with a relatively high human impact (typically areas with low plant species richness and high soil fertility). Overall, this study brings novel insights into local macro-fungi dark diversity patterns, suggesting that a multitude of drivers related to both soil and vegetation act in concert to determine fungal dark diversity.

ecology↗