Non-structural carbohydrate concentrations in tree organs vary across biomes and leaf habits, but are independent of the fast-slow plant economic spectrum.

Carbohydrate reserves play a vital role in plant survival during periods of negative carbon balance. Under a carbon-limited scenario, we expect a trade-offs between carbon allocation to growth, reserves, and defense. A resulting hypothesis is that carbon allocation to reserves exhibits a coordinated variation with functional traits associated with the 'fast-slow' plant economics spectrum.

Quantification of non-structural carbohydrates in different tissues of trees with diffuse reflectance spectroscopy: Is there a benefit from a fusion of near- and mid-infrared data?

Understanding the role of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) in tree-level carbon cycling crucially depends on the availability of NSC data in a sufficient temporal resolution covering extreme conditions and seasonal peaks or declines. Chemical analytical methods should therefore get complemented by less extensive retrieval methods. To this end, we explored the potential of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for estimating NSC contents at a set of 180 samples taken from leaves, roots, stems and branches of different tree species in different biogeographic regions.

Climatic and soil factors explain the two-dimensional spectrum of global plant trait variation.

Plant functional traits can predict community assembly and ecosystem functioning and are thus widely used in global models of vegetation dynamics and land-climate feedbacks. Still, we lack a global understanding of how land and climate affect plant traits. A previous global analysis of six traits observed two main axes of variation: (1) size variation at the organ and plant level and (2) leaf economics balancing leaf persistence against plant growth potential.

Functional Resilience against Climate-Driven Extinctions - Comparing the Functional Diversity of European and North American Tree Floras.

Future global change scenarios predict a dramatic loss of biodiversity for many regions in the world, potentially reducing the resistance and resilience of ecosystem functions. Once before, during Plio-Pleistocene glaciations, harsher climatic conditions in Europe as compared to North America led to a more depauperate tree flora. Here we hypothesize that this climate driven species loss has also reduced functional diversity in Europe as compared to North America.