ArticleAnnals of botany2025
Soil water-holding capacity does not mediate aridity effects on plant functional traits in Iberian dune ecosystems.
Article in Annals of botany, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- PGPR-Treated Spent Mushroom Substrate Enhances Lignocellulose Degradation, Enzyme Activities, and Microbial Restructuring to Sustain Blueberry Rhizosphere Fertility.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Aridity and drought: distinct concepts often conflated in ecological research.The New phytologist · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsAridity drives plant adaptations such as reduced stature, sclerophyllous leaves and increased phenolic production. While these patterns are well documented, the role of soil properties in modulating the impact of aridity remains understudied. Trait responses may also vary - converging, diverging, or remaining uncorrelated - across intraspecific and community levels, adding complexity to predictions of ecological responses to arid conditions.
methodsWe investigated how aridity influences six plant functional traits - lateral spread, maximum height, leaf area, specific leaf area (SLA), and the concentrations of total phenolics and flavonoids - at both the species level (focusing on Helichrysum italicum, the dominant species across the surveyed sites) and the community level across 24 dune ecosystems along the Atlantic-Mediterranean coastline of the Iberian Peninsula. We also collected soil samples and used piecewise structural equation modelling to assess whether physico-chemical soil variables - water-holding capacity, nutrient availability, pH and organic matter content - mediate the effects of aridity on plant functional traits. KEY
resultsWe found a significant negative relationship between aridity and both plant height and lateral spread in H. italicum, while leaf area, SLA, total phenolics and flavonoids were not significantly affected. At the community level, aridity was also negatively associated with plant height and lateral spread, positively associated with SLA, and showed no significant relationship with the concentrations of phenolic compounds. Importantly, water-holding capacity was strongly correlated (positively) with aridity; however, the influence of aridity on plant functional traits was not mediated by variation in this factor.
conclusionsThis study demonstrates that aridity consistently influences structural plant traits across species and community levels in Iberian dune ecosystems, with largely convergent responses across organismal scales, and these patterns occur independently of key soil variables such as water-holding capacity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.