Plant functional indicators of vegetation response to climate change, past present and future: I. Trends, emerging hypotheses and plant functional modality

Plant functional traits are widely applied in models that simulate the effects of climate change on biodiversity and resource management. Here the aim is to examine the potential role of specific plant functional traits and their whole-plant syndromes (Plant Functional Types or PFTs as specific ‘modal’ trait assemblages) as indicators of vegetation response to climate change, past, present and future. Because plant functional characteristics have evolved through time, it is widely argued that models of vegetation performance under future climates should benefit from a study of plant response under previous climates. This paper presents an overview first, of developmental concepts underlying the current use of PFTs as indicators of plant response to environmental change, second, implications arising from species acclimation and third, process-based models used in reconstruction of vegetation under mainly Holocene environments but also with respect to present and future climates. In this ...