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

加拿大各地的生态区为我们的自然遗产提供了多样性。从贫瘠的苔原到广阔的草原再到茂密的森林，它们的基本视觉和生物特征都是由植被决定的。植物生态学对沿环境梯度排列的植被群落进行描述性研究已有很长的历史。从对植物功能和适应性的研究中，我们也知道了为什么物种在某些环境中繁荣而在另一些环境中灭绝。例如，我们对诸如冬季温度或干旱风险等因素的适应能力相当了解，这些因素限制了物种的地理范围。我们对影响植物群落结构的适应性的了解要少得多。我们既不能预测哪些物种是常见的，哪些是稀有的，也不能预测一个物种在特定环境下的相对丰度。这些预测对于制定有充分根据的政策，可持续地管理我们的森林和野生动物栖息地，以及保护濒危动植物物种至关重要。仅靠描述性研究不足以预测植物群落如何应对气候变化和外来物种入侵等挑战。

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.