A Global Synthesis of How Plants Respond to Climate Warming From Traits to Fitness

Abstract

Despite intensive research, our understanding of how plants respond to warming by coordinating their full arsenal of traits to adjust fitness is lacking. To fill this gap, we applied a trait-based framework with three clusters (two functional clusters: “carbon-fixation rate” and “carbon-fixation area”; a third cluster: “total carbon fixation”) to a global dataset compiled from 572 studies of warming experiments with 677 species and a comprehensive list of traits and fitness components. The pairwise correlation analysis complemented with SEM and PCA showed that plants increased biomass (the core variable in the third cluster) under warming by coordinating satellite traits in two functional clusters to adjust their core traits, net photosynthesis rate and total leaf area, respectively. In particular, the trait coordination was characterised by the maintenance of net photosynthesis rate and the increase of total leaf area, which was robust across ecological contexts although warming responses of the variables per se displayed context-dependences. Moreover, the trade-offs between biomass and reproduction (itself bearing mass vs. number trade-offs) in their warming responses scaled the coordination to enhance fitness except in the contexts where reproduction was reduced. These findings could help explain and predict plant form and function in a warming world.