Intense solar radiation constrains plant species richness in global grasslands

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Spohn, Marie; Arnillas, Carlos Alberto; Bakker, Jonathan D.; Borer, Elizabeth T.; Brathen, Kari Anne; Cadotte, Marc W.; Carbutt, Clinton; Catford, Jane A.; Dupre, Mary E.; Dwyer, Ciara; Eisenhauer, Nico; Estrada, Catalina; Hagenah, Nicole; Haider, Sylvia; Harms, Kyle E.; Hautier, Yann; Hersch-Green, Erika I.; Knops, Johannes M. H.; Laanisto, Lauri; Laungani, Ramesh; Macek, Peter; Martinson, Holly; Millett, Jonathan; Partel, Meelis; Pennings, Steven C.; Peri, Pablo L.; Power, Sally A.; Risch, Anita C.; Roscher, Christiane; Seabloom, Eric W.; Smith, Nicholas G.; Stevens, Carly; Virtanen, Risto; Wardle, Glenda M.; Zhang, Pengfei
• 署名单位: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; University of Toronto; University Toronto Scarborough; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; UiT The Arctic University of Tromso; University of Toronto; University Toronto Scarborough; University of Kwazulu Natal; University of London; King's College London; University of Melbourne; Australian National University; Lund University; German Research Foundation (DFG); German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv); Leipzig University; Imperial College London; University of Pretoria; Leuphana University Luneburg; Louisiana State University System; Louisiana State University; Utrecht University; Michigan Technological University; Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University; Estonian University of Life Sciences; Czech Academy of Sciences; Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences; Loughborough University; University of Tartu; Tartu University Institute of Ecology & Earth Sciences; University of Houston System; University of Houston; Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria (INTA); Western Sydney University; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow & Landscape Research; Helmholtz Association; Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ); Texas Tech University System; Texas Tech University; Lancaster University; University of Oulu; University of Sydney; Lanzhou University
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2527128123
• 发表日期: 2026-02-10
• 页码: e2527128123
• 关键词: plant species richness; solar radiation; plant diversity; environmental filters; GRASSLANDS; vertical-distribution; uv-b; PRODUCTIVITY; clouds; regeneration; facilitation; aerosols; exchange; altitude; climate

摘要

The search for predictors of plant diversity has challenged scientists for decades. Here we identify intense photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) as a major factor constraining plant species richness in global grasslands. We show that the strength of the negative relationship between species richness and PAR increases with increasing elevation and that species richness is more strongly correlated with intense PAR than with UV-B radiation, climate variables, and atmospheric nitrogen deposition. In addition to species richness, plant biomass was also negatively correlated with PAR at higher elevations, indicating that intense PAR also constrains plant biomass in montane grasslands. Furthermore, we show that the decrease in plant species richness with increasing PAR is mainly caused by a decrease in species richness of forbs, sedges, and rushes. In contrast, species richness of grasses was only negatively correlated with PAR at high elevations, and species richness of legumes was not significantly correlated with PAR. Our results suggest that PAR constrains plant species richness in global grasslands and limits the extent to which plant species of specific functional groups can migrate uphill in response to climate warming.