Study reveals how plants influence Europe’s climate

Climate controls plant growth, but climate is also influenced by plants.Research by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) published in the journal global change biologyfound that ecosystems can strongly influence Europe’s climate depending on their plant mix.

The researchers combined satellite data with about 50,000 vegetation records from across Europe. 5% of a region’s climate control can be explained by its local plant diversity. The analysis also shows that effectiveness depends on many other factors. Plants can influence the climate by reflecting sunlight and cooling their surroundings through evaporation.

“There is a very complex relationship between plants and climate. On the one hand, climate affects not only plant growth, but also plant properties (growth height, leaf thickness, root depth, etc.) On the other hand, plants influence climate conditions in many different ways,” explains Dr. Stephane Kamback, a researcher at MLU’s Department of Geobotany. For example, if a plant reflects more sunlight, less heat will be stored in that area. Plants also evaporate water to cool their surroundings. In addition, plants bind large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

But until now, little was known about how different functional traits in plants, such as the properties of their leaves and roots, influence climate, Kambach said. To fill this knowledge gap, an international team led by MLU combined regional satellite data with field surveys of plants and plant characteristics at nearly 50,000 locations across Europe.

“For us, it was important to combine areas of very different habitats. Our data therefore includes areas of coniferous, deciduous and evergreen deciduous forests, as well as various bushlands and open countryside. It contains information about its formation,” explains Professor Helge Brühlheide, lead author of the study. Head of the Department of Geography and Botany at MLU.

“We showed that a significant part of the observed climate regulation processes is explained by differences in the functional properties of local plants. Therefore, it is important to understand which plants are present in how many within an ecosystem. A lot depends on how well it grows,” continues Kambach.

However, the effects varied widely between individual ecosystems, for example between evergreen coniferous and evergreen deciduous forests. “Yet, we were able to demonstrate that higher plant cover reflects less sunlight and larger leaves lead to higher evaporation levels and increased carbon sequestration,” the biologists explain.

This study is an important outcome of the European research project FeedBaCks, which investigates feedback mechanisms between biodiversity and climate and their impact on humans. It is coordinated by the University of Zurich.

“Our research also provides an important starting point for conservation and politics: consider the potential impacts and feedback effects of biodiversity when developing measures to mitigate climate change. ” concludes Helge Brühlheide.