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Journal Article

Late Quaternary climate legacies in contemporary plant functional composition

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Kattge,  Jens
Interdepartmental Max Planck Fellow Group Functional Biogeography, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Blonder, B., Enquist, B. J., Graae, B. J., Kattge, J., Maitner, B. S., Morueta‐Holme, N., et al. (2018). Late Quaternary climate legacies in contemporary plant functional composition. Global Change Biology, 24(10), 4827-4840. doi:10.1111/gcb.14375.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0001-DABC-6
Abstract
The functional composition of plant communities is commonly thought to be determined
by contemporary climate. However, if rates of climate‐driven immigration
and/or exclusion of species are slow, then contemporary functional composition may
be explained by paleoclimate as well as by contemporary climate. We tested this
idea by coupling contemporary maps of plant functional trait composition across
North and South America to paleoclimate means and temporal variation in temperature
and precipitation from the Last Interglacial (120 ka) to the present. Paleoclimate
predictors strongly improved prediction of contemporary functional composition
compared to contemporary climate predictors, with a stronger influence of temperature
in North America (especially during periods of ice melting) and of precipitation
in South America (across all times). Thus, climate from tens of thousands of years
ago influences contemporary functional composition via slow assemblage dynamics.