Data from: Taxonomic and functional turnover are decoupled in European peat bogs

• Main Authors: Robroek, Bjorn J. M., Jassey, Vincent E. J., Payne, Richard J., Martí, Magalí, Bragazza, Luca, Bleeker, Albert, Buttler, Alexandre, Caporn, Simon J. M., Dise, Nancy B., Kattge, Jens, Zając, Katarzyna, Svensson, Bo H., van Ruijven, Jasper, Verhoeven, Jos T. A.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Dryad Digital Repository 2017
• Subjects: community ecology; species diversity; functional diversity; plant functional traits; peatland ecology; environmental gradients; climate change; Europe; Holocene; Andromeda polifolia; Betula nana; Carex pauciflora; Drosera anglica; Drosera rotundifolia; Empetrum nigrum; Rubus chamaemorus; Scheuchzeria palustris; Vaccinium oxycoccus; Vaccinium uliginosum; Vaccinium microcarpon; Calluna vulgaris; Eriophorum angustifolium; Erica tetralix; Molinia caerulea; Narthecium ossifragum; Trichophorum cespitosum; Eriophorum vaginatum; Rhynchospora alba; Sphagnum angustifolium; Sphagnum balticum; Sphagnum fallax; Sphagnum fuscum; Sphagnum majus; Sphagnum rubellum; Sphagnum capillifolium; Sphagnum austinii; Sphagnum cuspidatum; Sphagnum flexuosum; Sphagnum papillosum; Sphagnum magellanicum; Sphagnum pulchrum; Sphagnum tenellum; Dicranales; Hypnales; Bryales; Cladonia spp; Polytrichales; Vaccinium vitis-idea; Sphagnum russowii; Sphagnum section Sphagnum
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.g1pk3; http://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/541366

In peatland ecosystems, plant communities mediate a globally significant carbon store. The effects of global environmental change on plant assemblages are expected to be a factor in determining how ecosystem functions such as carbon uptake will respond. Using vegetation data from 56 Sphagnum-dominated peat bogs across Europe, we show that in these ecosystems plant species aggregate into two major clusters that are each defined by shared response to environmental conditions. Across environmental gradients, we find significant taxonomic turnover in both clusters. However, functional identity and functional redundancy of the community as a whole remain unchanged. This strongly suggests that in peat bogs, species turnover across environmental gradients is restricted to functionally similar species. Our results demonstrate that plant taxonomic and functional turnover are decoupled, which may allow these peat bogs to maintain ecosystem functioning when subject to future environmental change. Environmental dataBioclimatic data and environmental data for all 56 European peatland site (geo referenced by longitude [long], latitude [lat] and altitude [ALT]. MAT = Mean annual temperature (°C), TS = Seasonality in temperature, MAP = Mean annual precipitation (mm), PS = Seasonality in precipitation, tot_sox = Total sulphur deposition SOx (mg m-2 yr-1), tot_noy = Total oxidized nitrogen deposition (mg m-2 yr-1), tot_nhx = Total reduced nitrogen deposition (mg m-2), PT warm = Lang’s moisture index. The four bioclimatic variables (MAT, TS, MAP, PS) were extracted from the WorldClim database (Hijmans, R. J., Cameron, S. E., Parra, J. L., Jones, P. G. & Jarvis, A. Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. Int. J. Climatol. 25, 1965–1978 (2005)), and averaged over the 2000-2009 period. Atmospheric deposition data were produced using the EMEP (European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme)-based IDEM (Integrated Deposition Model) model (Pieterse, G., Bleeker, A., Vermeulen, A. T., Wu, Y. & ...