Thomas Kiebacher

Plant Functional Traits Along Altitudinal Gradients: New Insights from the C?rdoba Mountains (Argentina) Thomas Kiebacher

Plant functional traits are important parameters to functionally classify species as well as communities and to subsequently approach ecosystem processes. Knowledge of these processes becomes more and more important, especially as with the climate change issue considerable migrations of species and communities are expected. This work presents a study, recently carried out in the C?rdoba Mountains (Argentina), which revealed new findings. Intra- and interspecific differences of 7 plant functional traits (leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, plant height, leaf thickness, leaf tensile strength and frost sensitivity) were analyzed in pairs of functionally related species along a 1500 m altitudinal gradient. The results are compared with previous studies and discussed in an ecological context. Furthermore possible consequences for plant migrations and species distribution due to climate change are discussed. In addition I provide a synopsis of altitudinal differences in 70 plant functional traits comprising 57 previous studies. The book is mainly addressed to researchers working on functional plant ecology and climate change effects.