Studying functional traits and their relationships with tree growth has proved a powerful approach for understanding forest structure. These are often expected to follow the classical resource economics perspective, where acquisitive leaves combined roots enhance uptake growth. However, evidence coordinated leaf trait effects on is scarce it remains poorly understood how these together determin...

Leaf traits can reflect plant photosynthetic capacity, resource utilization strategy and adaptability to the environment. However, whether species’ leaf are tightly related functioning of their community how that relationship varies with environmental gradients remain largely unexplored. We measured 6 traits, including petiole fineness (PF), specific area (SLA), (LA), length–width ratio (LLWR),...

Construction cost (CC) is a quantifiable measure of energy demand for biomass production and is related to energy-use efficiency. Low construction cost was hypothesized to give invaders a growth advantage by utilizing energy efficiently. The present study examines the energetic cost of leaf construction in the invasive weed Mikania micrantha H.B.K. and its five common co-occurring species (Ager...

Evolutionary adaptation to variation in resource supply has resulted in plant strategies that are based on trade-offs in functional traits. Here, we investigate, for the first time across multiple species, whether such trade-offs are also apparent in growth and morphology responses to past low, current ambient, and future high CO 2 concentrations. We grew freshly germinated seedlings of up to 2...

Changes in plant community traits along an environmental gradient are caused by interspecific and intraspecific trait variation. However, little is known about the role of interspecific and intraspecific trait variation in plant community responses to the restoration of a sandy grassland ecosystem. We measured five functional traits of 34 species along a restoration gradient of sandy grassland ...

Is it possible to generalize relationships between certain plant traits and soil fertility? In particular, are there quantitative community-weighted mean (CWM) trait values of leaf dry-matter content (LDMC), specific area (SLA), height, Grime’s competitor-stress tolerator-ruderal (CSR) strategy scores the generalized fertility, FG (i.e., capacity a produce biomass when all nonsoil variables hel...

Nitrogen (N) addition typically increases overall plant growth, but the nature of this response depends upon patterns of plant nitrogen allocation that vary throughout the growing season and depend upon canopy position. In this study seasonal variations in leaf traits were investigated across a canopy profile in Miscanthus (Miscanthus 9 giganteus) under two N treatments (0 and 224 kg ha ) to de...

Differences among tropical tree species in survival and growth to light play a key role in plant competition and community composition. Two canopy species with contrasting functional traits dominating early and late successional stages, respectively, in a tropical montane rain forest of Hainan Island, China, were selected in a pot experiment under 4 levels of light intensity (full, 50%, 30%, an...

The efficient conservation of vulnerable ecosystems in the face global change requires a complete understanding how plant communities respond to various environmental factors. We aim demonstrate that combined use different approaches, traits, and indices representing each taxonomic functional characteristics will give complementary information on factors driving vegetation assembly patterns. an...

Prosopis strombulifera is a widely distributed woody species along arid ecosystems in America. The interannual evolution of ecophysiological parameters and their effects on fruit production flower sprouting were studied for three years natural population the Atacama Desert. Xylem water column tension, pressure–volume curves, specific leaf area (SLA), chlorophyll fluorescence assessed. Flower wa...