MSU scientists together with the international team of scientists disclosed how climate change affect plants around the world. Briefly on the results of the study published in the Nature magazine, it is described in a press release on Godnauca.rf.
Biologists found out that the properties of the soil determine the supply of nutrient resources by plants, and the climate affects the growth parameters. For this, experts analysts have analyzed a huge amount of data on the functional signs of plants, as well as related features of soils and climatic parameters. In total, the base includes 20,655 species of plants from all over Earth, 21 climatic parameters and 107 soil characteristics.
Functional features are divided into two groups: associated with the size or with resources. The first refers, for example, the height of plants and the leaf area, and the second is the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in the leaves and the carbon content per unit of dry mass. At the same time, the height and area of the leaves are much larger in the warm and wet conditions of the tropics, that is, depend only on climatic data. Some signs are associated with both groups of factors, and some, including the number of seeds produced for the year – did not demonstrate the dependence on any group.
Results make it possible to understand how plants and ecosystems can generally respond to global climate change, and will help develop accurate models of vegetation dynamics in the global warming era.