• Energy Research

Significance Although the response of the Plant Kingdom to climate change is acknowledged as one of the fundamental feedback mechanisms of environmental changes on the Earth, until now, the response of plant species to in situ climate warming has been described at the level of a few fixed plant functional types (i.e. grasses, forbs, shrubs etc.). This approach is very coarse and inflexible. Here, we show that plant functional traits (i.e., plant features) can be used as predictors of vegetation response to climate warming. This finding enlarges possibilities for forecasting ecosystem responses to climate change.

Summary A significant fraction of carbon stored in the Earth's soil moves through arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) and ectomycorrhiza (EM). The impacts of AM and EM on the soil carbon budget are poorly understood. We propose a method to quantify the mycorrhizal contribution to carbon cycling, explicitly accounting for the abundance of plant‐associated and extraradical mycorrhizal mycelium. We discuss the need to acquire additional data to use our method, and present our new global database holding information on plant species‐by‐site intensity of root colonization by mycorrhizas. We demonstrate that the degree of mycorrhizal fungal colonization has globally consistent patterns across plant species. This suggests that the level of plant species‐specific root colonization can be used as a plant trait. To exemplify our method, we assessed the differential impacts of AM : EM ratio and EM shrub encroachment on carbon stocks in sub‐arctic tundra. AM and EM affect tundra carbon stocks at different magnitudes, and via partly distinct dominant pathways: via extraradical mycelium (both EM and AM) and via mycorrhizal impacts on above‐ and belowground biomass carbon (mostly AM). Our method provides a powerful tool for the quantitative assessment of mycorrhizal impact on local and global carbon cycling processes, paving the way towards an improved understanding of the role of mycorrhizas in the Earth's carbon cycle.