Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 8 5 2011 10.5194/bg-8-1255-2011 http://www.biogeosciences.net/8/1255/2011/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/8/1255/2011/bg-8-1255-2011.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/8/1255/2011/bg-8-1255-2011.pdf 1255 1266 2011-05-24 The role of plant functional trade-offs for biodiversity changes and biome shifts under scenarios of global climatic change B. Reu breu@bgc-jena.mpg.de S. Zaehle R. Proulx K. Bohn A. Kleidon R. Pavlick S. Schmidtlein Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, P.O. Box 10 01 64, 07701 Jena, Germany Institute of Geography, University Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 166, 53115 Bonn, Germany Département de Chimie-Biologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 des Forges, Trois-Rivières, G9A 5H7, Canada The global geographic distribution of biodiversity and biomes is determined by species-specific physiological tolerances to climatic constraints. Current vegetation models employ empirical bioclimatic relationships to predict present-day vegetation patterns and to forecast biodiversity changes and biome shifts under climatic change. In this paper, we consider trade-offs in plant functioning and their responses under climatic changes to forecast and explain changes in plant functional richness and shifts in biome geographic distributions. <br><br> The Jena Diversity model (JeDi) simulates plant survival according to essential plant functional trade-offs, including ecophysiological processes such as water uptake, photosynthesis, allocation, reproduction and phenology. We use JeDi to quantify changes in plant functional richness and biome shifts between present-day and a range of possible future climates from two SRES emission scenarios (A2 and B1) and seven global climate models using metrics of plant functional richness and functional identity. <br><br> Our results show (i) a significant loss of plant functional richness in the tropics, (ii) an increase in plant functional richness at mid and high latitudes, and (iii) a pole-ward shift of biomes. While these results are consistent with the findings of empirical approaches, we are able to explain them in terms of the plant functional trade-offs involved in the allocation, metabolic and reproduction strategies of plants. We conclude that general aspects of plant physiological tolerances can be derived from functional trade-offs, which may provide a useful process- and trait-based alternative to bioclimatic relationships. 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