Plant adaptation and the trait-based prediction of plant distribution and abundance

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The ecoregions across Canada provide the diversity underpinning our natural heritage. Their fundamental visual and biological character is set by their vegetation, from barren tundra through expansive grasslands to dense forests. Plant ecology has a long history of descriptive studies classifying vegetation into communities arrayed along environmental gradients. From studies of plant function and adaptation, we also have some idea why species prosper in some environments and die out in others. For example, we understand reasonably well adaptations to factors such as winter temperature or risk of drought that set limits on the geographic ranges of species. We understand much less well the adaptations that affect the structure of plant communities. We can neither predict which species will be common or rare, nor the relative abundance of a species in a particular environmental regime. Such predictions are critical to developing well-founded policies for the sustainable management of our forests and wildlife habitat, and for protecting endangered plant and animal species. Descriptive studies alone are insufficient for predicting how plant communities will respond to challenges such climate change and invasion by non-native species.