4.4 Conclusions
By using a novel experimental design, our study revealed distinct trends in community structure and species trait expression within grassland plant communities. We found that species had consistent trait responses to a variety of imposed climates. While this may suggest that climate alone does not have a strong influence on within-community trait dynamics, it highlights the importance of the interactive role between soil and climate in the internal structure of community traits. Communities generally produced biomass in consistent hierarchies at both the community and individual scale. However, species-specific contributions to community biomass depended heavily on soil and climate. Further, in treatments where species had low survivorship, species-specific biomass contribution was maintained through the increased biomass of surviving individuals. The effect of soil echoed this: analyses revealed stochastic variation in species trait responses across climates and species. Our integrative community-based approach contributes to predictions of grassland ecosystem-level changes under a changing climate, by incorporating aspects such as inter- and intra-specific species responses, as well as partitioning the contributions of climate and soil. Our study offers a holistic view regarding the role of species level trait-based dynamics in determining overall grassland community hierarchies.