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    Arbuscular mycorrhiza can be disadvantageous for weedy annuals in competition with paired perennial plants

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    UPRLIMET: UPstream Regional LiDAR Model for Extent of Trout in stream networks

    UPRLIMET is our response to a need for a consistent method for predicting the upper extent of trout in all streams across land ownerships within our region. By developing and implementing the model using LiDAR-derived flowline hydrography, we offer a standardized, spatially explicit, spatially contiguous (where LiDAR hydrography is available), and high-quality fish-distribution layer based on the probability of fish presence. UPRLIMET maps both the probability of trout and the upper limit of trout across landscapes, ownerships, and jurisdictions, and better captures the upper extent of fish in headwater reaches relative to previous approaches allowing for a cross-boundary distribution map on which decision-makers and managers can base policies and regulations.This work provides a transferable prediction modeling framework for systematically and comprehensively estimating the upper distribution limit of fish, which could be calibrated and implemented in watersheds and for fish species around the globe. Although the dependency on LiDAR-derived data here may be seen as a limitation to broader implementation of this method, the method is scalable to any resolution, and LiDAR is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the United States through the U.S. Geological Survey 3D Elevation Program, which is funding LiDAR acquisitions across the United States. Furthermore, LiDAR data is available globally via data from GEDI and ICESAT-2 satellites that offer coarser resolution (~ 25-m) data that are still superior to either ASTER or SRTM derived-DEMs26, 27.Minimizing prediction errors for the upper limit of trout is important to decision support and management planning because it ensures that forest-harvest regulations and management prescriptions are aligned. It is important to note that the prediction error estimates from this study are derived from the NSpCV process, except for models using 20% slope thresholds or unaltered parameterization of Fransen’s model13, because it is likely that the NSpCV estimates are conservative. They tended to overestimate error, as evidenced by the fact that the Refit model (i.e. Fransen’s optimal model13 refit to our data) exhibited a larger MAE than the unchanged optimal Fransen model13. This unexpected result was likely due to applying the NSpCV routine on the Refit model, resulting in the use of many intermediate models to characterize predictive performance using randomized subsets of independent training and test data. In contrast, the optimal Fransen model13 was developed independently using the data in this study and thus error could be evaluated directly without subsampling imposed by NSpCV.The relatively low error for the two-stage model that becomes UPRLIMET suggests that it more accurately characterizes the upper limit of fish than all other models considered in this study, including the Fransen model13, which has been used for estimating upper limit of fish regionally. Although some of the models exhibited relatively small differences in error relative to the model that became UPRLIMET, small differences in predicted upper limit locations when considered in aggregate across multiple watersheds can potentially alter management decisions and expected outcomes. Differences in predictive performance and error between UPRLIMET and the optimal Fransen model13 are likely attributed to high-accuracy hydrography and hydro-topographic data (as LiDAR-derived DEMs were not available in western Washington in 2006), which allowed a finer-scale of analysis (i.e., 5-m vs 10-m reaches). Additionally, the fact that UPRLIMET was fit to data solely from western Oregon likely offers predictive performance gains when applied to western Oregon when compared to the Fransen model13 that was fit to data from western Washington.Quantifying the predicted accuracy associated with applying UPRLIMET to western Washington will require new data and is outside the intended scope of this study. However, we think it is reasonable to infer findings from UPRLIMET across regions with similar climatic and hydro-topographic conditions including northwestern California, western Oregon, western Washington, and southwestern British Columbia, especially given the broad availability of LiDAR-derived DEMs. This conclusion is supported the fact that both the Fransen13 and Refit models produced similar logistic regression coefficients (Data S5) and similar Matthews Correlation Coefficients (Data S6), suggesting that feature space of the two models is similar. This evidence is further corroborated by the high degree of overlap observed among the distributions of each of the four predictor variables for both western Oregon and Washington. We acknowledge that UPRLIMET does not contain identical predictor variables to Fransen’s model13 but maintain that they are similar enough in purpose that it is reasonable to assume that the feature space similarities are retained.When we undertook this study, we hypothesized that a prediction model based on RF would offer superior predictive performance over those based on LR, given the availability of 67 predictor variables and RF’s demonstrated superior predictive performance in ecological applications23,24,25. However, our results suggests no improvement is offered by including more than four of the 67 environmental predictors examined, and that no clear advantage is offered by employing the more complex RF model, as evidenced by the top three of the top five prediction models being four-variable LR model algorithms (Fig. 3; Data S3.) The general importance of these variables to so many models is likely due to the strong linear relationships in the response of fish or no fish in logit space given the slopes of the curves in the partial dependence profiles (Fig. 4). This finding is congruent with the fundamental premise of LR, which is to explain and predict a response with a functional relationship, whereas RF deliberately focuses only on maximizing prediction accuracy with many decision trees28. Additional advantages to prediction models based on LR include the following: relatively better extrapolation performance over RF29, the simplicity of transferring a LR model to another processing platform using the model coefficients (versus the black box of RF decisions), and the immensely reduced computational processing times associated with LR model fitting and prediction. These advantages are especially key to this work, where there may be a desire to implement the model on other landscapes without the requisite expertise in doing so using the R software30. However, there are tradeoffs, as LR is more sensitive to the influence of outliers and multi-collinearity among variables, and overfitting is an increasing concern as the number of predictor variables increase, whereas RF tends to be robust to these concerns, but is more likely to produce a high-variance, low-bias prediction model31.Although there is no single, general explanation for distribution limits of species32, the intersection of stream size, slope, and elevation together locate the upper limit of fish. Stream size corresponds to major ecosystem changes along a stream continuum including for energy sources, ecosystem metabolism, habitat characteristics, and biodiversity33, as well as the upper distribution limit of fish, as shown here. As expected, stream size accounts for the top two variables in the model suggesting that it is the major driver of the upper distribution limit of fish with the probability of trout increasing with increasing upstream stream length and upstream drainage area. Our finding proposes that downstream stream reaches are more likely to have fish. Although the underlying mechanisms have multiple influences, factors related to increasing stream size, such as increasing habitat size, habitat complexity, stability, or temperature variability34 have been shown to be important. Similarly, stream size is the most sensitive factor in intrinsic potential models for Chinook Salmon (O. tshawytscha35). Slope, the next variable of importance influencing the upper extent of fish, exerts control on physical habitats in streams, including channel morphology, hydraulics, sediment transport, substrate, and habitat36. Steep slopes drastically prevent trout from reaching areas above waterfalls or impassable chutes of over 25% slope, but trout can be found in streams channels without barriers at slopes as high as 28%7, 14, 37. Other fishes, such as Coho Salmon (O. kisutch) and steelhead (O. mykiss) are generally not found above 12% slope38. Interestingly, survival of fishes that make it upstream or are introduced above barriers may be facilitated by a geomorphic setting that is less prone to debris flows and other episodic sediment fluxes and has a greater resilience to flooding resulting from wider valley and greater floodplain connectivity39. Elevation or vertical topographic position may indirectly integrate broad influences of other landscape-scale or climate factors or also indirectly capture stream size, influencing the likelihood of fish presence. Frequently, species richness increases at lower elevations40, and we suggest that elevation also contributes to species distribution limits, as is the case for the Endangered Species Act listed Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus)41. The multiple factors associated with elevation correspond to the relationship found for stream size that smaller streams are less likely to have fish. Ultimately, the intersection of stream size, slope, and elevation guide us to finding the upper extent of fish in streams.Physical influences have been proposed to be more limiting to fish distributions upstream, such as near the upper extent of fish, whereas biological factors are probably more important downstream33. Although 67 environmental predictor variables representing geologic, soil, climatic, and hydro-topographic conditions at local and patch scales are evaluated (Data S1), only the hydro-topographic variables of stream size, slope, and elevation are important to predicting the upper limit of fish in UPRLIMET. In fact, the top 9 models (Fig. 3; Data S3) relied on just four to five hydro-topographic variables, most of which were patch-scale variables or elevation at 1000 m, all of which incorporate a broader extent of influence. This suggests that local scale variables that contribute to fish limits, including slope or riparian influences may need to be further explored. In addition, some of the remaining 63 variables present in UPRLIMET, such as precipitation and air temperature, are important drivers of within-network trout distributions and contribute to their connectivity. Some of these predictor variables appear in the 10th ranked 26-variable RF-O-SR1 model (Data S2; Data S4; Data S8), but the influence appears to be dubious for isolating the upper limit and explaining variation in fish occurrence because MAE of upper limit was substantially higher than the 9 models with lower MAEs (Fig. 3; Data S3), and the lower MCC of the associated RF-O sub-model (Data S6). It is likely that other combinations of the 67 predictor variables, including precipitation, may be more important when this model development and evaluation framework is applied elsewhere, especially if those areas contain fishes or are places that are vulnerable to changing water temperatures and streamflow regimes. In addition, biological factors may be a concern in other watersheds, including invasive species and fish stocking which can limit the longitudinal distribution and the upstream extent of fishes.Given the large geographic extent of this study, we expected other variables such as precipitation to be more important drivers, however due to a combination of a wet water year, a lack of precipitation gradient in the study area, coarse grain data, and location of fish in streams this was not the case. For example, 2017 was a wetter than normal water year53, and it may be that the gradient of precipitation variation in western Oregon was not strong enough to explain the variation in the spatial distribution of trout occurrence. All climate data, including the precipitation data were sourced from relatively coarse-scale (800 m) PRISM data. The inability to adequately downscale precipitation to characterize how precipitation truly varies within and between patches, especially along elevational gradients, likely confounded how the model interprets the influence of precipitation. Trout occurrence was on perennial streams, which is likely far enough downstream of locations where variation in precipitation was the dominant influence on streamflow permanence and consequently would not have been a factor.Stream network structure plays a key role in the upper limits of fish. Upper limits for fish can occur at either lateral or terminal points13 and when mapping these points, differences were seen for UPRLIMET relative to other datasets. Lateral limits end in the tributary stream just above where it connects with a mainstem stream. Terminal limits include both mid-stream terminal limits where fish drop out in the middle of a stream channel owing to a soft (i.e., transient barrier or puttering out) or hard (i.e., waterfall) edge, and confluence terminal limits where the upper limit of fish ends at the confluence. For example, when closely examining the 14 watersheds where we have overlapping information across various datasets and models, UPRLIMET and the Fransen optimal model13 exhibit substantial agreement in their lateral limits. However, the largest differences are in their terminal ends, especially terminal mid-stream limits, probably owing to hydro-topographic changes that contribute to fish occurrence at confluences, which are more pronounced than mid-stream. Accordingly, the logic in the stopping rule is likely important in identifying specific upper extent of fish distributions in reaches that end mid-stream.Differences among databases for the upper distribution limits of fish come from both the upper limit points and depiction of fish-bearing reaches, underscoring the importance of having a shared map with common coverage of the fish extent across landscapes and ownerships. Differences among mapped distributions can result from source information, relating to whether it is modeled or occurrence data. Models, such as UPRLIMET, can be applied across a broad extent based on model parameters and training data, thereby offering broad coverage for distributions (and quantifiable error) across the landscape, ownerships, and jurisdictions. However, models are limited by accuracy and fit. As such, they can incorrectly predict distributions in some areas, especially if there are prediction features not yet trained with the model data where prediction would require extrapolation of the model. This makes both the training dataset and modeled extent important considerations, as models are only as good as the data used to develop them. Updating UPRLIMET with new data as it becomes available will help to expand the prediction domain, improve accuracy, and allow the model to do more interpolation than extrapolation.Distributions based on occurrence information depend heavily on data availability, data quality, and access. Differences in data availability can lead to inconsistent coverage across landscapes and ownerships, with high coverage in some watersheds and low to no coverage in others. Inconsistent coverage can lead to errors that are difficult to quantify across landscapes, ownerships, and survey crews. Occurrence information also depends on the ability to survey watersheds and gain access across ownership types, including on private lands that do not have the same assurances of access as public lands, resulting in information asymmetry42, 43. Data quality also depends on the spatial accuracy of the points of uppermost fish, which are a function of GPS quality and error, and can drastically change the modeled results, as these points are used in the training dataset. Differences among mapped distribution limits also result from differences in field protocols on designating last fish. For example, some crews note fish distribution limits where they visually see the last fish, whereas others note it upstream of where they saw last fish, based on habitat features that would limit fish. With the advent of LiDAR-derived DEMs and associated LiDAR-derived stream hydrography, like those available in much of western Oregon, have revealed additional flowlines in watersheds compared to previous topographic maps, which adds more potential tributaries to survey for fish-distribution assessments. When these new previously unmapped tributaries are paired with a model, such as UPRLIMET, a common information set is available across landowners, managers, and agencies for the upper extent of fish. This helps policymakers determine where to apply regulations that support fisheries and forest management, based on the upper fish limit.Next steps for applying and expanding the model include addressing current data gaps. More information and observations about the upper distribution limits of fish beyond western Oregon would be needed to properly expand the spatial scope of the model. The upper extent of fish is at the detection limit of many current technologies, including global nativation satellite system (GNSS), geographic information systems (GIS), and LiDAR, especially in forested landscapes. Better precision of GNSS coordinates from observations would help greatly. From an ecological perspective, we could focus on fish distribution limits that vary seasonally or interannually to better understand which stream features and hydrologic parameters influence those endpoints. We also need information related to locations of barriers, including culverts, waterfalls, and knickpoints to understand their influence on contemporary distributions. Incorporating variables representing riparian conditions as well as leveraging higher-resolution DEMs ( More

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    Vultures for climate

    Pablo Ignacio Plaza and Sergio Agustín Lambertucci from the National University of Comahue and the Argentine Research Council in Argentina quantified the contribution of vultures to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by developing two contrasting scenarios. The first assumes that all the dead animals that the vultures can consume are disposed of, whereas in the second scenario, the dead animals are left to decompose in the environment without scavengers. The results show that the current vulture population can reduce emissions by up to 60.7 teragrams CO2 equivalent per year. A decline in vulture populations decreases their mitigation capacity by 30%. The study highlights that vultures are essential to keep our climate cool. More

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    Honey bee colony loss linked to parasites, pesticides and extreme weather across the United States

    Honey bee colony loss and parasites across space and timeHoney bee colony loss strongly depends on spatio-temporal factors33,42, which in turn have to be jointly modeled with other stressors. Focusing on CONUS climatic regions, defined by the National Centers for Environmental Information40 (see Fig. 1), this is supported by the box plots in Fig. 2 which depict appropriately normalized honey bee colony loss (upper panel) and presence of V. destructor (lower panel) quarterly between 2015 and 2021. Specifically, Fig. 2a highlights that the first quarter generally accounts for a higher and more variable proportion of losses. Average losses are typically lower and less dispersed during the second quarter, and then tend to increase again during the third and fourth quarters. The Central region, which reports the highest median losses during the first quarter (larger than 20%) exemplifies this pattern, which is in line with existing studies that link overwintering with honey bee colony loss6,29,30,31,32,33,43. On the other hand, the West North Central region follows a different pattern, where losses are typically lower during the first quarter and peak during the third. This holds, albeit less markedly, also for Northwest and Southwest regions. These differing patterns are also depicted in Fig. 3, which shows the time series of normalized colony loss for each state belonging to Central and West North Central regions – with the smoothed conditional means highlighted in black and red, respectively. Figure 2b shows that also the presence of V. destructor tends to follow a specific pattern; in most regions it increases from the first to the third quarter, and then it decreases in the fourth – with the exception of the Southwest region, where it keeps increasing. This is most likely because most beekeepers try to get V. destructor levels low by fall, so that colonies are as healthy as possible going into winter, and also because of the population dynamics of V. destructor alongside honey bee colonies – i.e., their presence typically increases as the colony grows and has more brood cycles, since this parasite develops inside honey bee brood cells44,45. The West region (which encompasses only California since Nevada was missing in the honey bee dataset; see Data) reports high levels of V. destructor throughout the year, with very small variability. A comparison of Fig. 2a and b shows that honey bee colony loss and the presence of V. destructor tend to be higher than the corresponding medians during the third quarter, suggesting a positive association. This is further confirmed in Fig. 4, which shows a scatter plot of normalized colony loss against V. destructor presence, documenting a positive association in all quarters. Although with the data at hand we are not able to capture honey bee movement across states, as well as intra-quarter losses and honey production, these preliminary findings can be useful to support commercial beekeeper strategies and require further investigation.Figure 2Empirical distribution of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony loss (a) and Varroa destructor presence (b) across quarters (the first one being January-March) and climatic regions; red dashed lines indicate the overall medians. (a) Box plots of normalized colony loss (number of lost colonies over the maximum number of colonies) for each quarter of 2015–2021 and each climatic region. At the contiguous United States level, this follows a stable pattern across the years, with higher and more variable losses during the first quarter (see Supplementary Figs. S2-S6), but some regions do depart from this pattern (e.g., West North Central). (b) Box plots of normalized V. destructor presence (number of colonies affected by V. destructor over the maximum number of colonies) for each quarter of 2015–2021 and each climatic region. The maximum number of colonies is defined as the number of colonies at the beginning of a quarter, plus all colonies moved into that region during the same quarter.Full size imageFigure 3Comparison of normalized honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony loss (number of lost colonies over the maximum number of colonies) between Central and West North Central climatic regions for each quarter of 2015–2021 (the first quarter being January-March). (a) Trajectory of each state belonging to Central (yellow) and West North Central (blue) climatic regions. (b) Smoothed conditional means for each of the two sets of curves based on a locally weighted running line smoother where the width of the sliding window is equal to 0.2 and corresponding standard error bands are based on a 0.95 confidence level46.Full size imageFigure 4Scatter plot of normalized honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony loss (number of lost colonies over the maximum number of colonies) against normalized Varroa destructor presence (number of colonies affected by V. destructor over the maximum number of colonies) for each state and each quarter of 2015–2021 (the first quarter being January-March). Points are color-coded by quarter, and ordinary least squares fits (with corresponding standard error bands based on a 0.95 confidence level) computed by quarter are superimposed to visualize the positive association.Full size imageUp-scaling weather dataThe data sets available to us for weather related variables had a much finer spatio-temporal resolution (daily and on a (4 times 4) kilometer grid) than the colony loss data (quarterly and at the state level). Therefore, we aggregated the former to match the latter. For similar data up-scaling tasks, sums or means are commonly employed to summarize the variables available at finer resolution47. The problem with aggregating data in such a manner is that one only preserves information on the “center” of the distributions – thus losing a potentially considerable amount of information. To retain richer weather related information in our study, we considered additional summaries capturing more complex characteristics, e.g., the tails of the distributions or their entropy, to ascertain whether they may help in predicting honey bee colony loss. Within each state and quarter we therefore computed, in addition to means, indexes such as standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, (L_2)-norm (or energy), entropy and tail indexes48. This was done for minimum and maximum temperatures, as well as precipitation data (see Data processing for details).Next, as a first way to validate the proposed weather data up-scaling approach, we performed a likelihood ratio test between nested models. Specifically, we considered a linear regression for colony loss (see Statistical model) and compared an ordinary least squares fit comprising all the computed indexes as predictors (the full model) against one comprising only means and standard deviations (the reduced model). The test showed that the use of additional indexes provides a statistically significant improvement in the fit (p-(text {value}=0.03)). This test, which can be replicated for other choices of models and estimation methods (see Supplementary Table S5), supports the use of our up-scaling approach.Figure 5 provides a spatial representation of (normalized) honey bee colony losses and of three indexes relative to the minimum temperature distribution; namely, mean, kurtosis and skewness (these all turn out to be relevant predictors based on subsequent analyses; see Table 1). For each of the four quantities, the maps are color-coded by state based on the median of first quarter values over the period 2015-2021 (first quarters typically have the highest losses, but similar patterns can be observed for other quarters; see Supplementary Figs. S12-S14). Notably, the indexes capture characteristics of the within-state distributions of minimum temperatures that do vary geographically. For example, considering minimum temperature, skewness is an index that (broadly speaking) provides information on whether the data tends to accumulate at one end or the other of the observed range of minimum temperatures (i.e., a positive/negative skewness indicates that the data accumulates towards the lower/upper range, respectively). On the other hand, kurtosis is an index that captures the presence of “extreme” values in the tails of the data (i.e., a low/high value of kurtosis indicates that the tail minimum temperatures are relatively close/very far from the typical minimum temperatures). With this in mind, going back to Fig. 5, we can see that minimum temperatures in states in the north-west present large kurtosis (a prevalence of extreme values in the tails) and negative skewness (a tendency to accumulate towards the upper values of the minimum temperature range), while the opposite is true for states in the south-east. More generally, the mean minimum temperature separates northern vs southern states, kurtosis is higher for states located in the central band of the CONUS, and skewness separates western vs eastern states.We further note that the states with lower losses during the first quarter (e.g., Montana and Wyoming) do not report extreme values in any of the considered indexes. Although these states are generally characterized by low minimum temperatures, these are somewhat “stable” (they do not show marked kurtosis or skewness in their distributions) – perhaps allowing honey bees and beekeepers to adapt to more predictable conditions. On the other hand, states with higher losses during the first quarter such as New Mexico have higher minimum temperatures as well as marked kurtosis, and thus higher chances of extreme minimum temperatures – which may indeed affect honey bee behavior and colony loss. Overall, across all quarters of the years 2015-2021, we found that normalized colony losses and mean minimum temperatures are negatively associated (the Pearson correlation is -0.17 with a p-(text {value} More

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    Future tree survival in European forests depends on understorey tree diversity

    Environmental and competitive filtering is most important for future tree survivalWe find that individual functional traits of each tree were most important for individual tree survival (40–87%) for all study sites, followed by forest dynamics (16–28%) and functional diversity (10–26%) (Fig. 2). Nevertheless, importance proportions substantially varied in each study site. While individual functional traits were least important in the mixed mountainous forest under reference climate (no climate warming), individual functional traits showed highest influence in the mixed temperate forest under future climate change (Fig. 2).Figure 2Relative importance of functional diversity, forest dynamics and individual traits for individual tree survival under reference climate and future climate conditions (RCP 4.5). Panels correspond to alpine needle-leaved (A), mixed mountainous (B), mixed temperate (C) and temperate broad-leaved (D) forests. Left bars in each panel illustrate reference climate (no warming) and right bars future climate (RCP4.5). Colours indicate forest dynamics (grey), functional diversity (yellow) and individual functional traits (blue). Forest dynamics include the number of locally competing trees ( > 5 m in height) and local biomass as a proxy for the successional status.Full size imageTree survival depends on a mixture of environmental (e.g. climate) and natural competitive filtering, which excludes trees with trait combinations that underperform under local conditions16. Therefore, the high importance of individual functional traits across all study sites suggests a strong environmental and competitive filtering. Under future climate, the importance of individual functional traits generally increases or remains at high levels (Fig. 2). This shows that environmental and competitive filtering through functional traits are important processes to select best performing trees for the future, although being different for each forest type.Changing forest composition and trait shifts require large functional portfolio to secure forest resistanceUnder future climate, we observe trait shifts within plant functional types and strong changes of the forest composition (Figs. 3, 4). Especially in the alpine and mixed forests, the proportion of broad-leaved trees increases to at least ~ 70% towards the end of the twenty-first century (Fig. 3). The changing climate alters environmental and competitive filtering simultaneously, whereby broad-leaved trees become more productive, survive better and increasingly outcompete needle-leaved trees. For instance, in the two mixed forests survival probabilities of broad-leaved trees (high SLA) increase by about ~ 10%, whereas the survival of needle-leaved (low SLA) trees is reduced by 10% to 30% in a warmer climate (see Supplementary Figs. S7, S8, Panel A). Locally better adapted and competitive broad-leaved trees can replace needle-leaved trees if they die and secure the forest’s overall biomass in the future. Nevertheless, our simulated forests still contain significant amounts of needle-leaved trees in the year 2099 in the two coldest study areas (Fig. 3, red and blue lines). Therefore, mixed tree communities with high functional diversity, where broad- and needle-leaved trees coexist, contain a broad range of functional niches out of which the best suitable plant strategies emerge and result in better resistance to climate change.Figure 3Forest compositions and changes in the proportion of broad-leaved trees (summergreen and evergreen plant functional type combined) under climate change (RCP 4.5) from 2000 to 2099 for each study site. The fraction of broad-leaved trees, as simulated by LPJmL-FIT for each site, increases gradually in almost every forest type reaching at least about 70% by the end of the century. Pictures depict snapshots from visualization of model output in the years 2000 and 2099, respectively. For a full animation of all sites from 2000 to 2099 please see Supplementary Video 1.Full size imageFigure 4Trait distributions of specific leaf area in year 2000 and 2099, respectively, under future climate change (RCP 4.5). Arrows indicate trait shifts within plant functional types: BL-S Broad-leaved summergreen, BL-E Broad-leaved evergreen, T-NL Temperate needle-leaved, B-NL Boreal needle-leaved. For more detailed distributions see Supplementary Figs. S3 and S4.Full size imageSimultaneously, we observe strong trait shifts in SLA within plant functional types across all study sites under climate change (Fig. 4). In general, the community of broad-leaved trees shift to lower SLA, while boreal needle-leaved trees are strongly reduced or slowly replaced by their temperate equivalent with higher SLA (Supplementary Fig. S3A, dark blue colours). In contrast, wood density distributions remain relatively broad and do not shift strongly under climate change (Supplementary Fig. S4). Throughout the century, the increasingly warmer climate filters new trait combinations leading to changes in the community composition within and across PFTs (see Supplementary Discussion B). Those trait shifts emerge from changes in the composition within PFTs and newly establishing PFTs, and could be less drastic if trait adaptation of tree individuals was considered (see “Limitations and outlook” section). The points raised above show, that trait ranges within and between PFTs should be wide to cover potential future trait shifts that secure future forest resistance.All this suggests that functionally diverse forests are more resistant to future climate changes, due to their rich portfolio of traits. Broad trait distributions both within and between PFTs form the fundament for environmental and competitive filtering to select the most productive trees, securing the forest’s overall biomass under changing conditions. But can functional diversity further strengthen forest resistance beyond portfolio effects?Functional complementarity helps young trees to surviveWe find that, in addition to port-folio effects, functional diversity increases forest resistance by supporting the survival of young trees to changing climate conditions via trait complementarity. Our results indicate, that trees benefit from functional diversity if they grow in tree communities with high FR, high FDv and low FE (Supplementary Figs. S6–S9, Panel D–F in each figure). Here, functional traits lay highly separated (FDv and FE) and span a broad range in the functional trait space (FR), enabling functional complementarity. Under these conditions the survival of trees increases up to + 16.8% (± 1.6%) depending on the study site and climate (Table 1). This effect is highest in the alpine and mountainous forests (14–17%), whereas it is less prominent or has an opposite effect in the two temperate forests (− 7% to 6%). That suggests, that complementarity effects are stronger in cold-limited and mixed forests where a marked cold winter season fosters a co-existence between broadleaved and needle-leaved trees. Both PFTs are specialized in fixing carbon during different times of the annual cycle: Due to their leaf phenology, needle-leaved trees can already be productive when broad-leaved trees are still in progress of unfolding or shedding their leaves. On the other hand, broad-leaved trees are more productive than needle-leaved trees during warmer months. If coexistence is given, these phenological differences enable complementarity and reduce competition among PFTs. That overall increases tree survival, because trees can invest more carbon in their stems and defensive structures if competition is lower. Therefore, we argue that phenological complementary can enhance tree survival and thus forest resistance. An in-depth discussion of those mechanisms is further found in Supplementary Discussion A.Table 1 Additional survival probabilities for trees in each forest site under reference climate (central column) and future climate (RCP4.5, right column) in case FR and FDv are high, while FE is low.Full size tableSurprisingly, our results show that those complementary effects are much more important for small trees ( 10 m) in right panel, respectively. Functional diversity and forest dynamics are more important for small trees compared to large trees, whereas individual functional traits matter most for large trees. This pattern was found to be consistent across all sites (see Supplementary Table S6).Full size imageFunctionally diverse understoreys unlock the synergy of filtering and complementary effectsOur findings underline the role of functionally diverse trees in the understoreys for forest resistance. On the one hand, functional diversity supports the survival of understorey trees via functional trait complementarity. On the other hand, they form the fundament for competitive and environmental filtering. Only diverse tree communities have trait pools large enough to ensure that their tree portfolio holds trait combinations best suited for changing climate conditions. Therefore, we argue that functional diversity does not only support tree survival through complementarity, but is a prerequisite for filtering resistant trees in the first place.To profit constantly from functional diversity of the understory and ensure constant adaptation, a diverse age structure is a prerequisite. Depending on the forest type, trees are distributed in a broad range of different height and age classes in our study (Supplementary Fig. S5, Supplementary Video 1). This multi-aged structure is preserved under climate change (Supplementary Fig. S5) and allows gradual changes through constant environmental and competitive filtering in the future.In this study, we simulate forests without any human interference or management. Our results are therefore to be interpreted in the context of environmental and competitive filtering as observed in natural forests. Most managed forests lack this natural filtering effect as they are less dense and diverse in their age-structure. Functionally diverse trees in the understorey could provide the fundament for climate adapted multi-aged forests, as they constantly form new better adapted tree generations with natural competition and succession allowed. Therefore, we fully underline the importance of functionally diverse understorey trees and natural competition as the fundament for future forest resistance.Management implicationsThe results of this study highlight the importance of functionally diverse understorey trees. However, browsing by game might damage new tree saplings and limit tree diversity in the understorey. In addition, invasive species like Prunus serotina or herbaceous competition might hinder forest succession and the establishment of woody native species in European forests20,21. Therefore, regulating game, limiting the spread of invasive species and controlling herbaceous vegetation should be considered in future management practices where tree diversity in the understorey seeks to be increased or maintained. Moreover, insufficient dispersal of functionally different tree species might limit the establishment of functionally diverse trees in the understorey. Future forest management may consider to artificially plant functionally different tree species if dispersal from surrounding forests cannot be guaranteed. On the other hand, forests that already contain functionally diverse trees in the understorey should be preserved.In this study, a clear trend from needle-leaved to broad-leaved trees is captured at all sites, whereas within broad-leaved PFTs a shift to lower specific leaf area and higher leaf longevities indicates that future forests might especially benefit from longer vegetation periods (earlier leaf onset, later senescence). Therefore, forests containing broad-leaved tree individuals with high phenological plasticity could be more resistant. The broad simulated wood density ranges, which persist under climate change, imply beneficial effects for forest communities entailing a range of different growing strategies, i.e. early to late successional species. Therefore, we argue that forest fragmentation should be reduced or reversed to foster some natural dispersal of early and late successional species.This study intended to explore the potentials of functionally diverse forests as a possibility to stabilize forests under climate change over a large climatic gradient. The model used in this study operates on the more general level of functional traits and their diversity rather than on species level (see “Methods” section and Supplementary Methods A). Consequently, management implications regarding suitable specific tree species are beyond the scope of this study. However, we think that our results will stimulate the discussion on the importance of functional tree traits and their diversity for species selection.Limitations and outlookThis study focussed on identifying the importance of functional diversity for future tree survival to advance our understanding on the role of biodiversity for future forest resistance using the flexible-trait Dynamic Global Vegetation Model LPJmL-FIT. The general approach of LPJmL-FIT is to simulate biogeographic dynamics purely based on environmental and competitive filtering (see “Methods” section, Supplementary Methods A). Due to missing processes in the model and the ambiguity of former human influence, drawing site-specific implications on future forest dynamics must be taken with caution (see Supplementary Discussion D).Moreover, processes not yet captured in the LPJmL-FIT model, might play a role and could lower forest resistance in the future, which is why we recommend relying on a trait space as broad as possible.Including more climate scenarios would widen the envelope of possible future pathways by considering climate model uncertainties. Insect outbreaks and pathogens might put pressure to the already drought- and temperature-stressed trees and heavily accelerate mortality especially of needle-leaved trees, although functionally diverse forests are less vulnerable to bark beetle outbreaks22,23. Multi-layered forests showed higher growth resilience to structural disturbances such as wind-throw24, likely enhancing the importance of individual tree height and reduce the survival probability of large trees25. Belowground competition and trait plasticity could favour complementarity effects further. Variable rooting strategies could further reduce competition for soil water and thereby increase individual drought resistance of trees26. Trait plasticity can contribute to tree survival by widening niche, further increasing complementarity effects. However, trait plasticity remains one of the most challenging objectives in vegetation modelling as observational data and modelling approaches are scarce27, leaving it open how far trait relationships would hold under climate change. Considering more functional traits in our analysis might increase the overall predictive power of the random forest models. Even though the explained variance increased with the number of analysed traits explaining ecosystem properties in long-term grassland experiments, such improvement is limited as abiotic factors and their interactions with plant traits might be more important for prediction28. We conclude that simulating future forest dynamics dominated by environmental and natural competitive filtering requires to integrate both, abiotic and biotic drivers on forest dynamics. Machine learning techniques are increasingly used in forest ecological research—but mainly applied in the processing of field and forest inventory data29,30. Machine learning can help to understand the complexity of interactions and provide deeper insights into the underlying ecological process in a modelling study as we have shown here using LPJmL-FIT simulation results. Random forest analyses are suitable for a variety of data and applications because they are relatively robust to different data structures. Importance analysis can help to identify the role of underlying processes in complex models and to visualize their changes in a simple way. In doing so, model development is advanced by making use of large data sets, opening the door to further theory building and deeper understanding of plant trait ecology. More

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    Younger trees in the upper canopy are more sensitive but also more resilient to drought

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