Biodiversity facets, canopy structure and surface temperature of grassland communities

Canopy structure is an important driver of the energy budget of the grassland ecosystem and is, at the same time, altered by plant diversity. Diverse plant communities typically have taller and more densely packed canopies than less diverse communities. With this, they absorb more radiation, have a higher transpiring leaf surface, and are better coupled to the atmosphere which leads to cooler canopy surfaces. However, whether plant diversity generally translates into a cooling potential remains unclear and lacks empirical evidence. Here, we assessed how functional identity, functional diversity, and species richness of grassland communities in the Jena Experiment predict the mean and variation of plant surface temperature mediated via effects of canopy structure. Using terrestrial laser scanning, we estimated canopy structure describing metrics of vertical structure (mean height, LAI), the distribution (evenness), and the highest allocation (center of gravity) of biomass along he...