Trait‐based approaches have improved our understanding of plant evolution, community
assembly and ecosystem functioning. A major challenge for the upcoming decades is to …

Seed persistence is the survival of seeds in the environment once they have reached
maturity. Seed persistence allows a species, population or genotype to survive long after the …

What determines the number and size of the seeds produced by a plant? How often should it
reproduce them? How often should a plant produce them? Why and how are seeds …

Comparative functional ecology seeks to understand why and how ecological systems and
their components operate differently across environments. Although traditionally used in …

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 …

Environmental and socio-economic changes are leading to increased levels of land
abandonment worldwide. The assembly of plant communities on old fields has informed …

Species-rich grassland and heathland communities still occur in low-intensity farming
systems in many European countries. Gradually, such systems have either been abandoned …

Coastal zones are becoming increasingly topical (and politically sensitive) as they face
relentless pressures from urban expansion, recreational development, and sea level rise …

The integration of functional traits into vulnerability assessments is a promising approach to
quantitatively capture differences in species sensitivity and adaptive capacity to climate …

The classic reference on weeds and invasive plants has been revised and updated. The
Third Edition of this authoritative reference provides an in-depth understanding of how …