Ecologists are increasingly adopting trait-based approaches to understand how community
change influences ecosystem processes. However, most of this research has focussed on …

Roots vary in anatomy, morphology and physiology, both spatially (different parts of the
same root system) and temporally (plastic changes, root ageing), suggesting that root trait …

Ecosystem functioning relies heavily on below‐ground processes, which are largely
regulated by plant fine‐roots and their functional traits. However, our knowledge of fine‐root …

Fine‐root traits play key roles in ecosystem processes, but the drivers of fine‐root trait
diversity remain poorly understood. The plant economic spectrum (PES) hypothesis predicts …

Phylogenetic diversity (PD) describes the total amount of phylogenetic distance among
species in a community. Although there has been substantial research on the factors that …

Despite progress in trait‐based ecology, there is limited understanding of the plant traits that
structure semi‐arid grasslands. In particular, it remains unclear how traits that enable plants …

Evolutionary relationships are likely to play a significant role in sha** plant physiological
and structural traits observed in contemporary taxa. We review research on phylogenetic …

Plant phenotypic diversity is shaped by the interplay of trade‐offs and constraints in
evolution. Closely integrated groups of traits (ie trait dimensions) are used to classify plant …

Questions Is there any evidence of coordination among leaf, stem and root traits, and
thereby of the existence of a plant economics spectrum at the species and community level …

There is a fundamental trade‐off between leaf traits associated with either resource
acquisition or resource conservation. This gradient of trait variation, called the economics …