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[EN] Selection of functional traits is a challenge for researchers, but an increasingly necessary objective due to the growing concern regarding animal welfare and overcoming the problems of reducing antibiotic use in rabbit production without undermining the animals' productivity. The aim of this review is to discuss the genetic control of resistance to diseases, longevity and variability of birth weight within a litter, or litter size variability at birth within doe, describing the selection programmes and the first results from a multi-omics analysis of resistance/susceptibility to diseases. The heritability is around 0.13 for longevity, 0.01 for uniformity in birth weight, 0.09 for litter size variability and around 0.11 for disease resistance. Genetic correlations between functional traits and production traits are mostly no different from zero, or are moderately favourable in some cases. Six selection programmes developed in three countries are reviewed. Line foundation with high pressure for selection or divergent selection experiments are different methodologies used, and favourable responses to selection have been achieved. Genomics studies have revealed associations in regions related to immune system functionality and stress in lines selected for litter size variability. Knowledge of the role of gut microbiota in the rabbit's immune response is very limited. A multi-omics approach can help determine the microbial mechanisms in regulation immunity genes of the host. ; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) with Projects AGL2017- 86083, C2-1-P and C2-2-P, and the Valencian Regional Government through Project AICO/2019/169 ; García, ML.; Gunia, M.; Argente, MJ. (2021). Genetic factors of functional traits. World Rabbit Science. 29(4):207-220. https://doi.org/10.4995/wrs.2021.13320 ; OJS ; 207 ; 220 ; 29 ; 4 ; Agea I., García M.L., Blasco A., Argente M.J. 2019. Litter survival differences between divergently selected lines for environmental sensitivity in rabbits. Animals, 9: 603. ...

Functional trait databases are emerging as crucial tools for a wide range of ecological studies across the world. Here, we provide a database of functional traits for vascular plant species of the Mediterranean Basin. The database includes 25,764 individual records of 44 traits from 2,457 plant taxa distributed in 119 taxonomic families. This database (BROT 2.0) is an updated and enlarged version of a previous database (BROT 1.0; 8,263 records, 14 traits, 952 taxa). Trait data were obtained from a comprehensive literature review, plus some field and experimental observations. All records are fully referenced and, in many cases, include geographic coordinates. The database is structured to include different levels of accuracy of trait information for each entry. BROT 2.0 should facilitate testing hypotheses on plant functional ecology within the Mediterranean Basin, and comparing this region with other ecosystems worldwide. The BROT 2.0 database and its trait definitions can be used as a template for creating similar trait databases in other regions of the world. ; The Scientific Research Unit of Hacettepe University funded several mutual visits by the authors (FBB-2015-7251, FBD-2017-13864, FBB-2017-14948). BROT 2.0 was performed under the framework of the FILAS (CGL2015-64086-P, Spanish government) and PROMETEO/2016/021 (Valencia Government) projects. ; Peer reviewed

Questions: What is the functional trait variation of European temperate grasslands and how does this reflect global patterns of plant form and function? Do habitat specialists show trait differentiation across habitat types?. Location: Europe. Methods: We compiled 18 regeneration and non-regeneration traits for a continental species pool consisting of 645 species frequent in five grassland types. These grassland types are widely distributed in Europe but differentiated by altitude, soil bedrock and traditional long-term management and disturbance regimes. We evaluated the multivariate trait space of this entire species pool and compared multi-trait variation and mean trait values of habitat specialists grouped by grassland type. Results: The first dimension of the trait space accounted for 23% of variation and reflected a gradient between fast-growing and slow-growing plants. Plant height and SLA contributed to both the first and second ordination axes. Regeneration traits mainly contributed to the second and following dimensions to explain 56% of variation across the first five axes. Habitat specialists showed functional differences between grassland types mainly through non-regeneration traits. Conclusions: The trait spectrum of plants dominating European temperate grasslands is primarily explained by growth strategies which are analogous to the trait variation observed at the global scale, and secondly by regeneration strategies. Functional differentiation of habitat specialists across grassland types is mainly related to environmental filtering linked with altitude and disturbance. This filtering pattern is mainly observed in non-regeneration traits, while most regeneration traits demonstrate multiple strategies within the same habitat type. ; EL, BJA, MTI, AM, PI and CB acknowledge the research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013 under REA grant agreement no. 607785, as a part of the NAtive Seed Science TEchnology and Conservation (NASSTEC) Initial Training Network (ITN). BJA was further funded by the Marie Curie Clarín‐COFUND program of the Principality of Asturias and the European Union (ACB17‐26). BJA and HB acknowledge support from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle–Jena–Leipzig funded by the German Research Foundation (DFTG FZT 118) through the sPlot research platform. PI acknowledges support from the Rural & Environment Science & Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government. KÖ thanks RO1567‐IBB03/2018 for financial support.

Abstract
The aim of the present study was to determine a relationship between physiological traits and functional types of bryophytes from five boreonemoral habitats with a particular emphasis on discriminative ability of these traits. Sampling of 25 species was performed four times during one season. Water content, chlorophyll a fluorescence and photosynthetic pigment concentration were measured in field and water-equilibrated samples. Principal component analysis indicated the existence of an inverse relationship between concentration of pigments and water content. Linear discriminant analysis showed that relatively high mean predicted posterior probabilities of correct classification of functional types by physiological traits were found for water conducting system, followed by substrate and habitat, but it was highly variable and type-specific for life form and relatively less variable for life strategy. Field water content had the highest average discriminative importance among physiological traits, followed by chlorophyll fluorescence indices field Fv/Fm, equilibrated PI, equilibrated RC/ABS, and field RC/ABS. Photosynthetic pigment concentrations had relatively less average importance for classification of functional types.

Part 1. Intra-specific trait diversity -- Chapter 1. Incorporating ontogenetic niche shifts into hybrid community dynamics -- Chapter 2. Effects of rapid evolution on population cycles and extinction in predator-prey systems -- Chapter 3. The possibility that the evolution of sexual traits stabilizes ecological communities -- Chapter 4. Spatiality and community stability -- Part 2. Inter-specific trait and functional diversity -- Chapter 5. Direct and Indirect Effects of Facilitation and Competition in Ecological -- Chapter 6. Mathematical modeling on microbes and their roles in community and ecosystem: how to handle microbial diversity in modeling? -- Part 3. Diversity of inter-specific interaction -- Chapter 7. Ecology and evolution of density-dependence -- Chapter 8. Interaction-type diversity and community stability -- Part 4. A novel approach in community ecology -- Chapter 9. Forecasting ecological time series using empirical dynamic modeling: a tutorial for simplex projection and S-map. .

Altres ajuts europeus: P.A.W. was additionally supported by the European Union Fourth Environment and Climate Framework Programme (Project Number ENV4-CT970586)P.A.W. was additionally supported by the European Union Fourth Environment and Climate Framework Programme (Project Number ENV4-CT970586). ; The tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature-trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially important influence of changes in water availability on future trait shifts in tundra plant communities. Community height increased with warming across all sites over the past three decades, but other traits lagged far behind predicted rates of change. Our findings highlight the challenge of using space-for-time substitution to predict the functional consequences of future warming and suggest that functions that are tied closely to plant height will experience the most rapid change. They also reveal the strength with which environmental factors shape biotic communities at the coldest extremes of the planet and will help to improve projections of functional changes in tundra ecosystems with climate warming.

Functional traits have emerged as a key to understand species responses to environmental conditions. The concerted expression of multiple traits gives rise to the phenotype of each individual, which is the one interacting with the environment and evolving. However, patterns of trait covariation and how they vary in response to environmental conditions remain poorly understood, particularly at the intraspecific scale. Here, we have measured traits at different scales and in different organs, and analysed their covariation in a large number of conspecifics distributed in two contrasting environments. We expected significant correlations among traits, not only within clusters of traits as found in global, multispecies studies, but also among clusters, with more relationships within clusters, due to genetic constraints, and among clusters due to more coordinated phenotypes than community level, multispecies studies. We surveyed 100 Pinus sylvestris trees in a Mediterranean mountainous area distributed in two contrasting elevations. We measured 13 functional traits, in three clusters (leaf, stem and whole-plant traits), and analysed their variation and coordination. We found significant coordination among traits belonging to different clusters that reveals coordinated phenotypes. However, we found fewer correlations within trait clusters than initially expected. Trait correlation structures (number, intensity and type of correlations among traits) differed among individuals at different elevations. We observed more correlations within trait clusters at low elevation compared to those at high elevation. Moreover, the higher number of correlations among different trait clusters and the lower trait variation at the higher elevation suggests that variability decreases under more stressful conditions. Altogether, our results reveal that traits at intraspecific scale are coordinated in a broad network and not only within clusters of traits but also that this trait covariation is significantly affected by environmental conditions. ; BC thanks for a research scholarship from Coordenacão de Aperfeicçoamento de Pessoal de Nıvel Superior- CAPES [DOC-PLENO-Programade Doutorado Plenono Exterior. Grant Agreement No 99999.001266/2015-02]. All authors acknowledge support from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme Project GenTree [Grant Agreement No. 676876]; REMEDINALTC-CM [Autonomous Community of Madrid, S2018/EMT-4338]; COMEDIAS FEDER [CGL2017-83170-R, Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities] and LINC Global [4540-143AP] projects.

44 páginas.- 4 figuras.- 2 tablas.- 51 referencias.- Supplementary Information accompanies this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10453-0.- Estimation of species demographic parameters and pairwise competitive coefficients for both climatic treatments are available at Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/ 10.5061/dryad.5d1s952. Average species means for the 19 functional traits included in this experiment are included in Supplementary Table 1. ; Functional traits are expected to modulate plant competitive dynamics. However, how traits and their plasticity in response to contrasting environments connect with the mechanisms determining species coexistence remains poorly understood. Here, we couple field experiments under two contrasting climatic conditions to a plant population model describing competitive dynamics between 10 annual plant species in order to evaluate how 19 functional traits, covering physiological, morphological and reproductive characteristics, are associated with species¿ niche and fitness differences. We find a rich diversity of univariate and multidimensional associations, which highlight the primary role of traits related to water- and light-use-efficiency for modulating the determinants of competitive outcomes. Importantly, such traits and their plasticity promote species coexistence across climatic conditions by enhancing stabilizing niche differences and by generating competitive trade-offs between species. Our study represents a significant advance showing how leading dimensions of plant function connect to the mechanisms determining the maintenance of biodiversity. ; Funding support to conduct the experiment was provided by the Spanish Ecological Terrestrial Society (AEET, Jóvenes Investigadores grant 2014/2). I.M. P.-R. and L.M. were funded by a "Ramón & Cajal" contract (RYC-2013-13937) and an "Acción 6 UJA" fellowship (EI_RNM4_2017), respectively. O.G. acknowledges postdoctoral financial support provided by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement (No. 661118-BioFUNC). I.M.P.-R. and L.G.-A. also thank support from the MICINN projects DECAFUN (CGL2015-70123-R) and INTERCAPA (CGL-2014-56739-R).

Trees use nonstructural carbon (NSC) to run their metabolism. They absorb carbon through photosynthesis and store it as NSC. Storage of nonstructural carbon (NSC) in different organs buffer metabolic demands when photosynthesis is limited, which helps trees to cope with these stressful conditions. These conditions are recurrent throughout trees lifetime and they can reduce photosynthesis. These stressful conditions are increasing with climate change, which impose risks of widespread loss of trees and ecosystem functions around the world. Therefore, it is essential to understand how the storage of NSC in trees contributes to trees' survival to stressful conditions. Nevertheless, for tropical trees it is unknown how they would respond to an increase in stressful conditions and how storage of NSC would contribute to tree survival and resilience. For instance, NSC storage capacity and its spatial distribution in wood may be related with the accessibility and cycling of this carbon reserves, they may impact the time that carbon resides in trees and they may vary between tropical trees with different functional traits. To test this assumption, here we wanted to evaluate the storage capacity, and the spatial and temporal distribution of NSC in tropical trees from a seasonally dry forest in the Amazon in relation to their wood anatomical traits, leaf habit (evergreen and semi deciduous) and life history traits (growth and mortality rates). This dissertation addresses the following question: what are the principal factors that influence the dynamics of allocation and use of NSC storage in the stem wood of some tropical tree species, and how to model these NSC dynamics in order to predict NSC ages and transit times under stressful conditions. These questions were addressed within the three main chapters of this thesis, which are described below.

11 páginas.- 4 figuras.- 2 tablas.-- 44 referencias.- Supplementary Information accompanies this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10453-0 .- Data availability Estimation of species demographic parameters and pairwise competitive coefficients for both climatic treatments are available at Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5d1s952. Average species means for the 19 functional traits included in this experiment are included in Supplementary Table 1. ; Functional traits are expected to modulate plant competitive dynamics. However, how traits and their plasticity in response to contrasting environments connect with the mechanisms determining species coexistence remains poorly understood. Here, we couple field experiments under two contrasting climatic conditions to a plant population model describing competitive dynamics between 10 annual plant species in order to evaluate how 19 functional traits, covering physiological, morphological and reproductive characteristics, are associated with species' niche and fitness differences. We find a rich diversity of univariate and multidimensional associations, which highlight the primary role of traits related to water- and light-use-efficiency for modulating the determinants of competitive outcomes. Importantly, such traits and their plasticity promote species coexistence across climatic conditions by enhancing stabilizing niche differences and by generating competitive trade-offs between species. Our study represents a significant advance showing how leading dimensions of plant function connect to the mechanisms determining the maintenance of biodiversity. ; Funding support to conduct the experiment was provided by the Spanish Ecological Terrestrial Society (AEET, Jóvenes Investigadores grant 2014/2). I.M. P.-R. and L.M. were funded by a "Ramón & Cajal" contract (RYC-2013-13937) and an "Acción 6 UJA" fellowship (EI_RNM4_2017), respectively. O.G. acknowledges postdoctoral financial support provided by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement (No. 661118-BioFUNC). I.M.P.-R. and L.G.-A. also thank support from the MICINN projects DECAFUN (CGL2015-70123-R) and INTERCAPA (CGL-2014-56739-R). ; Peer reviewed