Fernando T. Maestre Pierre Liancourt Miguel Berdugo Raphael Martin Beatriz Gozalo Victoria Ochoa Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo Vincent Maire Hugo Saiz Santiago Soliveres Enrique Valencia David J. Eldridge Emilio Guirado Franck Jabot Sergio Asensio Juan J. Gaitan Miguel García-Gómez Paloma Martinez Jaime Martinez-Valderrama Betty J. Mendoza Eduardo Moreno-Jimenez David S. Pescador Cesar Plaza Ivan Santaolaria Pijuan Mehdi Abedi Rodrigo J. Ahumada Fateh Amghar Antonio I. Arroyo Khadijeh Bahalkeh Lydia Bailey Farah Ben Salem Niels Blaum Bazartseren Boldgiv Matthew A. Bowker Cristina Branquinho Liesbeth van den Brink Chongfeng Bu Rafaella Canessa Andrea del P. Castillo-Monroy Helena Castro Patricio Castro-Quezada Roukaya Chibani Abel Augusto Conceicao Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi Yvonne C. Davila Balazs Deak David A. Donoso Jorge Duran Carlos I. Espinosa Alex Fajardo Mohammad Farzam Daniela Ferrante Jorgelina Franzese Lauchlan H. Fraser Sofia Laura Gonzalez Elizabeth Gusman-Montalvan Rosa Mary Hernandez-Hernandez Norbert Holzel Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald Oswaldo Jadan Florian Jeltsch Anke Jentsch Mengchen Ju Kudzai F. Kaseke Liana Kindermann Peter C. le Roux Anja Linstadter Michelle A. Louw Mancha Mabaso Gillian Maggs-Kolling Thulani P. Makhalanyane Oumarou Malam Issa Antonio J. Manzaneda Eugene Marais Pierre Margerie Frederic Mendes Hughes Joao Vitor S. Messeder Juan P. Mora Gerardo Moreno Seth M. Munson Alice Nunes Gabriel Oliva Gaston R. Onatibia Guadalupe Peter Yolanda Pueyo R. Emiliano Quiroga Elizabeth Ramirez-Iglesias Sasha C. Reed Pedro J. Rey Víctor M. Reyes Gómez Alexandra Rodriguez Victor Rolo Juan G. Rubalcaba Jan C. Ruppert Osvaldo E. Sala Ayman Salah Phokgedi Julius Sebei Ilan Stavi Colton R. A. Stephens Alberto L. Teixido Andrew D. Thomas Heather L. Throop Katja Tielborger Samantha K. Travers Sainbileg Undrakhbold James Val Orsolya Valko Frederike Velbert Wanyoike Wamiti Lixin Wang Deli Wang Glenda M. Wardle Peter Wolff Laura Yahdjian Reza Yari Eli Zaady Juan Manuel Zeberio Yuanling Zhang Xiaobing Zhou Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet Nicholas Gross 2024 <div id="Abs1-section" class="c-article-section"><div id="Abs1-content" class="c-article-section__content"><p>Earth harbours an extraordinary plant phenotypic diversity^{<a id="ref-link-section-d95710910e3925" title="Díaz, S. et al. The global spectrum of plant form and function. Nature 529, 167–171 (2016)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR1" data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" aria-label="Reference 1" data-mce-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR1">1</a>}<span>&nbsp;</span>that is at risk from ongoing global changes^{<a id="ref-link-section-d95710910e3929" title="IPBES. Summary for policymakers of the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553579 (2019)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR2" data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" aria-label="Reference 2" data-mce-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR2">2</a>,<a id="ref-link-section-d95710910e3932" title="Carmona, C. P. et al. Erosion of global functional diversity across the tree of life. Sci. Adv. 7, eabf2675 (2021)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR3" data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" aria-label="Reference 3" data-mce-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR3">3</a>}. However, it remains unknown how increasing aridity and livestock grazing pressure—two major drivers of global change^{<a id="ref-link-section-d95710910e3936" title="Shukla, P. R. et al. eds. Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems (IPCC, 2019)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR4" data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" data-mce-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR4">4</a>,<a id="ref-link-section-d95710910e3936_1" title="Berdugo, M. et al. Global ecosystem thresholds driven by aridity. Science 367, 787–790 (2020)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR5" data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" data-mce-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR5">5</a>,<a id="ref-link-section-d95710910e3939" title="Maestre, F. T. et al. Grazing and ecosystem service delivery in global drylands. Science 378, 915–920 (2022)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR6" data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" aria-label="Reference 6" data-mce-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR6">6</a>}—shape the trait covariation that underlies plant phenotypic diversity^{<a id="ref-link-section-d95710910e3943" title="Díaz, S. et al. The global spectrum of plant form and function. Nature 529, 167–171 (2016)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR1" data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" aria-label="Reference 1" data-mce-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR1">1</a>,<a id="ref-link-section-d95710910e3946" title="Joswig, J. S. et al. Climatic and soil factors explain the two-dimensional spectrum of global plant trait variation. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 6, 36–50 (2022)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR7" data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" aria-label="Reference 7" data-mce-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR7">7</a>}. Here we assessed how covariation among 20 chemical and morphological traits responds to aridity and grazing pressure within global drylands. Our analysis involved 133,769 trait measurements spanning 1,347 observations of 301 perennial plant species surveyed across 326 plots from 6 continents. Crossing an aridity threshold of approximately 0.7 (close to the transition between semi-arid and arid zones) led to an unexpected 88% increase in trait diversity. This threshold appeared in the presence of grazers, and moved toward lower aridity levels with increasing grazing pressure. Moreover, 57% of observed trait diversity occurred only in the most arid and grazed drylands, highlighting the phenotypic uniqueness of these extreme environments. Our work indicates that drylands act as a global reservoir of plant phenotypic diversity and challenge the pervasive view that harsh environmental conditions reduce plant trait diversity^{<a id="ref-link-section-d95710910e3950" title="Keddy, P. A. Assembly and response rules: two goals for predictive community ecology. J. Veg. 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I.) 249–318 (Elsevier, 2015)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR10" data-track="click" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-test="citation-ref" aria-label="Reference 10" data-mce-href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07731-3#ref-CR10">10</a>}. They also highlight that many alternative strategies may enable plants to cope with increases in environmental stress induced by climate change and land-use intensification.</p></div></div> application/pdf 10.1038/s41586-024-07731-3 en Nature Unforeseen plant phenotypic diversity in a dry and grazed world article