Although the structure and composition of plant communities is known to influence the functioning
of ecosystems, there is as yet no agreement as to how these should be described from …

We developed a quantitative method, analogous to those used in statistical mechanics, to
predict how biodiversity will vary across environments, which plant species from a species …

Bringing together leaf trait data spanning 2,548 species and 175 sites we describe, for the
first time at global scale, a universal spectrum of leaf economics consisting of key chemical, …

Plant functional traits are the features (morphological, physiological, phenological) that
represent ecological strategies and determine how plants respond to environmental factors, …

The concept of plant functional type proposes that species can be grouped according to
common responses to the environment and/or common effects on ecosystem processes. …

Plant traits – the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological
characteristics of plants and their organs – determine how primary producers respond to …

Earth is home to a remarkable diversity of plant forms and life histories, yet comparatively
few essential trait combinations have proved evolutionarily viable in today’s terrestrial …

In its simplest definition, a trait is a surrogate of organismal performance, and this meaning
of the term has been used by evolutionists for a long time. Over the last three decades, …

Worldwide decomposition rates depend both on climate and the legacy of plant functional
traits as litter quality. To quantify the degree to which functional differentiation among species …

Ecologists need a common language of plant traits in order to make comparisons across
regions and scales, pool data, and maximize the utility of the data. To develop such a set of …