Grassland destruction causes shifts in plant traits that persist during recovery

Old-growth grasslands assemble over millennia and support high biodiversity and many ecosystem services, but continue to undergo widespread destruction for production of crops, timber, and minerals. How biodiversity recovers after grassland destruction and the functional consequences of this recovery can be informed by plant functional traits—i.e., morpho-physiological features that influence growth, survival, and reproduction. Yet we lack understanding of how functional traits differ between old-growth and secondary (i.e., recovering) grassland plant species at the global scale, hindering understanding of community assembly processes that transcend geographical regions. Addressing this gap, we synthesized trait data for 742 plant species from 24 studies across six continents to understand how plant species indicative of old-growth and secondary grasslands compare in their traits. Compared to old-growth grasslands, plants indicative of secondary grasslands were taller and had leaves with more nitrogen content, higher specific leaf area, and lower dry-matter content. Notably, these trait differences that make old-growth grassland plants more resource conservative and secondary grassland plants more resource acquisitive persisted over a century. Taken together, these findings help to explain why many secondary grasslands support altered plant communities for decades to centuries and emphasize the importance of old-growth grassland conservation in the light of the unique plant forms and functions they support. Persistent trait shifts associated with grassland destruction could accelerate nutrient cycling, and our findings provide guidance for recovering old-growth grassland biodiversity through ecological restoration.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2026-08-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2533967123
Primary Topic
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Type
article
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article

Grassland destruction causes shifts in plant traits that persist during recovery

Norbert Hölzel, Lars A. Brudvig, Élise Buisson, Giselda Durigan et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
article

Grassland destruction causes shifts in plant traits that persist during recovery

Norbert Hölzel, Lars A. Brudvig, Élise Buisson, Giselda Durigan, Omofomwan Kingsley Osazuwa, Frances Siebert, Soizig Le Stradic, Daniela Boecker, Karel Prach, Rafael S. Oliveira, André L. Giles, Grégory Mahy, Ellen I. Damschen, Renaud Jaunatre, John L. Orrock, Megha Ojha, Michal Hájek, Julien Piqueray, Brenda Molano‐Flores, Eszter Ruprecht, Klára Řehounková, Mário G. B. Cava, Deepak Barua, Ashish N. Nerlekar, Forest ISBELL, Jin Hua Li, Zhou Xi, Jutta Stadler, Natashi Pilon, Emma Ladouceur, Wenjin Li, Thierry Dutoit, Lauren L. Sullivan
article en

Abstract

Old-growth grasslands assemble over millennia and support high biodiversity and many ecosystem services, but continue to undergo widespread destruction for production of crops, timber, and minerals. How biodiversity recovers after grassland destruction and the functional consequences of this recovery can be informed by plant functional traits—i.e., morpho-physiological features that influence growth, survival, and reproduction. Yet we lack understanding of how functional traits differ between old-growth and secondary (i.e., recovering) grassland plant species at the global scale, hindering understanding of community assembly processes that transcend geographical regions. Addressing this gap, we synthesized trait data for 742 plant species from 24 studies across six continents to understand how plant species indicative of old-growth and secondary grasslands compare in their traits. Compared to old-growth grasslands, plants indicative of secondary grasslands were taller and had leaves with more nitrogen content, higher specific leaf area, and lower dry-matter content. Notably, these trait differences that make old-growth grassland plants more resource conservative and secondary grassland plants more resource acquisitive persisted over a century. Taken together, these findings help to explain why many secondary grasslands support altered plant communities for decades to centuries and emphasize the importance of old-growth grassland conservation in the light of the unique plant forms and functions they support. Persistent trait shifts associated with grassland destruction could accelerate nutrient cycling, and our findings provide guidance for recovering old-growth grassland biodiversity through ecological restoration.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 123(36)
University of Minnesota (US), University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (DE), Sewanee: The University of the South (US), Université de Bordeaux (FR), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US), The University of Queensland (AU), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) (BR), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune (IN), Masaryk University (CZ), University of Prince Edward Island (CA), University of Münster (DE), North-West University (ZA), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (BE), Babeș-Bolyai University (RO), University of Oxford (GB), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (BR), Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR), Ministry of Agriculture (EE), Institute for Biodiversity (DE), Institute of Landscape Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Botany (CZ), Instituto Florestal (BR), Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie Marine et Continentale (FR), Ecosystem Sciences (AU), Michigan State University (US), Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) (BR), Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
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