Linking performance trait stability with species distribution: the case of Artemisia and its close relatives in northern China

摘要

AimsUnderstanding the relationship between species and environments is at the heart of ecology and biology. Ranges of species depend strongly on environmental factors, but our limited understanding of relationships between range and trait stability of species across environments hampers our ability to predict their future ranges. Species that occur over a wide range (and thus have wide niche breadth) will have high variation in morpho-physiological traits in response to environmental conditions, thereby permitting stability of performance traits and enabling plants to survive in a range of environments. We hypothesized that species' niche breadth is negatively correlated with the rate of performance trait change along an environmental gradient.