Being John Harper: Using evolutionary ideas to improve understanding of global patterns in plant traits

Species with larger body size do not dominate neighbourhood biomass production in old-field vegetation

(2017) Amanda Tracey et al.   JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE

Global biogeography of seed dormancy is determined by seasonality and seed size: a case study in the legumes

(2017) Rafael Rubio de Casas et al.   NEW PHYTOLOGIST

Global climatic drivers of leaf size

(2017) Ian J. Wright et al.   SCIENCE

Merging paleobiology with conservation biology to guide the future of terrestrial ecosystems

(2017) Anthony D. Barnosky et al.   SCIENCE

Unpacking a century-old mystery: Winter buds and the latitudinal gradient in leaf form

(2016) Erika J. Edwards et al.   AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY

Telemetric tracking of scatterhoarding and seed fate in a Central African forest

(2016) Cooper Rosin et al.   BIOTROPICA

An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV

(2016)   BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

Can trait patterns along gradients predict plant community responses to climate change?

(2016) John Guittar et al.   ECOLOGY

The mechanical defence advantage of small seeds

(2016) Evan C. Fricke et al.   ECOLOGY LETTERS

Species with greater seed mass are more tolerant of conspecific neighbours: a key driver of early survival and future abundances in a tropical forest

(2016) Edwin Lebrija-Trejos et al.   ECOLOGY LETTERS

Climate determines vascular traits in the ecologically diverse genusEucalyptus

(2016) Sebastian Pfautsch et al.   ECOLOGY LETTERS

Wind dispersal is predicted by tree, not diaspore, traits in comparisons of Neotropical species

(2016) Carol K. Augspurger et al.   FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY

Soil-climate interactions explain variation in foliar, stem, root and reproductive traits across temperate forests

(2016) Angela H. Simpson et al.   GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY

Plant energetics and the synthesis of population and ecosystem ecology

(2016) Jason D. Fridley   JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY

Multidimensional structure of grass functional traits among species and assemblages

(2016) Brody Sandel et al.   JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE

Wood traits related to size and life history of trees in a Panamanian rainforest

(2016) Peter Hietz et al.   NEW PHYTOLOGIST

Specific leaf area and hydraulic traits explain niche segregation along an aridity gradient in Mediterranean woody species

(2016) José María Costa-Saura et al.   PERSPECTIVES IN PLANT ECOLOGY EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS

Variation of tropical forest assembly processes across regional environmental gradients

(2016) Robert Muscarella et al.   PERSPECTIVES IN PLANT ECOLOGY EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS

The influence of leaf size and shape on leaf thermal dynamics: does theory hold up under natural conditions?

(2016) A. Leigh et al.   PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT

Evolutionary divergence of leaf width and its correlates

(2015) Wade C. Tozer et al.   AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY

A mammoth mouthful? A test of the idea that larger animals ingest larger seeds

(2015) Si-Chong Chen et al.   GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY

Global effects of soil and climate on leaf photosynthetic traits and rates

(2015) Vincent Maire et al.   GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY

Regional and historical factors supplement current climate in shaping global forest canopy height

(2015) Jian Zhang et al.   JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY

Climatological correlates of seed size in Amazonian forest trees

(2015) Ana C.M. Malhado et al.   JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE

A plant economics spectrum in Mediterranean forests along environmental gradients: is there coordination among leaf, stem and root traits?

(2015) Enrique G. de la Riva et al.   JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE

The global spectrum of plant form and function

(2015) Sandra Díaz et al.   NATURE

Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition

(2015) Georges Kunstler et al.   NATURE

Fertilization affects the establishment ability of species differing in seed mass via direct nutrient addition and indirect competition effects

(2015) Kolja Bergholz et al.   OIKOS

Body size and fitness in plants: Revisiting the selection consequences of competition

(2015) Lonnie W. Aarssen   PERSPECTIVES IN PLANT ECOLOGY EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS

New insights into leaf and fine-root trait relationships: implications of resource acquisition among 23 xerophytic woody species

(2015) Fang Lan Li et al.   Ecology and Evolution

Tree height-diameter allometry across the United States

(2015) Catherine M. Hulshof et al.   Ecology and Evolution

Broad Anatomical Variation within a Narrow Wood Density Range—A Study of Twig Wood across 69 Australian Angiosperms

(2015) Kasia Ziemińska et al.   PLoS One

Shifts in trait means and variances in North American tree assemblages: species richness patterns are loosely related to the functional space

(2014) Irena Šímová et al.   ECOGRAPHY

Trait–environment relationships remain strong despite 50 years of trait compositional change in temperate forests

(2014) Kathryn L. Amatangelo et al.   ECOLOGY

Determinants of maximum tree height inEucalyptusspecies along a rainfall gradient in Victoria, Australia

(2014) Thomas J. Givnish et al.   ECOLOGY

The world-wide ‘fast-slow’ plant economics spectrum: a traits manifesto

(2014) Peter B. Reich   JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY

Which is a better predictor of plant traits: temperature or precipitation?

(2014) Angela T. Moles et al.   JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE

Altitudinal changes in tree leaf and stem functional diversity in a semi-tropical mountain

(2014) Erasto Hernández-Calderón et al.   JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE

Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size

(2014) N. L. Stephenson et al.   NATURE

Coordination of stem and leaf hydraulic conductance in southern California shrubs: a test of the hydraulic segmentation hypothesis

(2014) Alexandria L. Pivovaroff et al.   NEW PHYTOLOGIST

Growth maximization trumps maintenance of leaf conductance in the tallest angiosperm

(2014) George W. Koch et al.   OECOLOGIA

Post-dispersal seed predation and its relations with seed traits: a thirty-species-comparative study

(2014) Hede Gong et al.   PLANT SPECIES BIOLOGY

Revising traditional theory on the link between plant body size and fitness under competition: evidence from old-field vegetation

(2014) Amanda J. Tracey et al.   Ecology and Evolution

Predicting current and future spatial community patterns of plant functional traits

(2013) Anne Dubuis et al.   ECOGRAPHY

Specific leaf area responses to environmental gradients through space and time

(2013) John M. Dwyer et al.   ECOLOGY

Predicting species' maximum dispersal distances from simple plant traits

(2013) Riin Tamme et al.   ECOLOGY

Convergent effects of elevation on functional leaf traits within and among species

(2013) Quentin D. Read et al.   FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY

High reproductive efficiency as an adaptive strategy in competitive environments

(2013) Stephen P. Bonser   FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY

Potential hydraulic efficiency in angiosperm trees increases with growth-site temperature but has no trade-off with mechanical strength

(2013) Shi-Bao Zhang et al.   GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY

Mechanisms underlying global temperature-related patterns in leaf longevity

(2013) Kihachiro Kikuzawa et al.   GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY

Floods, drought, and seed mass of riparian plant species

(2013) Juliet C. Stromberg et al.   JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS

Latitudinal gradients as natural laboratories to infer species' responses to temperature

(2013) Pieter De Frenne et al.   JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY

Three keys to the radiation of angiosperms into freezing environments

(2013) Amy E. Zanne et al.   NATURE

Taller plants have lower rates of molecular evolution

(2013) Robert Lanfear et al.   Nature Communications

A plant's perspective of extremes: terrestrial plant responses to changing climatic variability

(2012) Christopher P.O. Reyer et al.   GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY

A global analysis of trait variation and evolution in climbing plants

(2012) Rachael V. Gallagher et al.   JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY

Relative effects of phylogeny, biological characters and environments on leaf traits in shrub biomes across central Inner Mongolia, China

(2012) Chao Liu et al.   Journal of Plant Ecology

Assessing the influence of environmental gradients on seed mass variation in mountain grasslands using a spatial phylogenetic filtering approach

(2012) Matteo Dainese et al.   PERSPECTIVES IN PLANT ECOLOGY EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS

Nature and nurture: the importance of seed phosphorus content

(2012) Philip J. White et al.   PLANT AND SOIL

Global patterns of leaf mechanical properties

(2011) Yusuke Onoda et al.   ECOLOGY LETTERS

The evolution and functional significance of leaf shape in the angiosperms

(2011) Adrienne B. Nicotra et al.   FUNCTIONAL PLANT BIOLOGY

TRY - a global database of plant traits

(2011) J. KATTGE et al.   GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY

The biogeography and filtering of woody plant functional diversity in North and South America

(2011) Nathan G. Swenson et al.   GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY

Seed dispersal distance is more strongly correlated with plant height than with seed mass

(2011) Fiona J. Thomson et al.   JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY

Sensitivity of leaf size and shape to climate: global patterns and paleoclimatic applications

(2011) Daniel J. Peppe et al.   NEW PHYTOLOGIST

Granivore seed-size preferences

(2011) Troy M. Radtke   SEED SCIENCE RESEARCH

Why intraspecific trait variation matters in community ecology

(2011) Daniel I. Bolnick et al.   TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION

Changes in traits of shrub canopies across an aridity gradient in northern Patagonia, Argentina

(2010) Laura Moreno et al.   BASIC AND APPLIED ECOLOGY

Plant geography upon the basis of functional traits: an example from eastern North American trees

(2010) Nathan G. Swenson et al.   ECOLOGY

Decoupled leaf and stem economics in rain forest trees

(2010) Christopher Baraloto et al.   ECOLOGY LETTERS

How do traits vary across ecological scales? A case for trait-based ecology

(2010) Julie Messier et al.   ECOLOGY LETTERS

Increasing wood production through old age in tall trees

(2010) Stephen C. Sillett et al.   FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

Spatial patterns of wood traits in China are controlled by phylogeny and the environment

(2010) Shi-Bao Zhang et al.   GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY

Plant survival in relation to seed size along environmental gradients: a long-term study from semi-arid and Mediterranean annual plant communities

(2010) Johannes Metz et al.   JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY

COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF LEAF FORM: ASSESSING THE RELATIVE ROLES OF SELECTIVE PRESSURES AND PHYLOGENETIC CONSTRAINTS

(2010) THOMAS J. GIVNISH   NEW PHYTOLOGIST

Contrasting trait responses in plant communities to experimental and geographic variation in precipitation

(2010) Brody Sandel et al.   NEW PHYTOLOGIST

The relationship between wood density and mortality in a global tropical forest data set

(2010) Nathan J. B. Kraft et al.   NEW PHYTOLOGIST

Not so simple after all: searching for ecological advantages of compound leaves

(2010) Laura Warman et al.   OIKOS

Effects of height on treetop transpiration and stomatal conductance in coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)

(2010) A. R. Ambrose et al.   TREE PHYSIOLOGY

Plant Strategies in Relation to Resource Supply in Mesic to Wet Environments: Does Theory Mirror Nature?

(2009) Jenny C. Ordoñez et al.   AMERICAN NATURALIST

Community assembly and shifts in plant trait distributions across an environmental gradient in coastal California

(2009) William K. Cornwell et al.   ECOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS

Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum

(2009) Jerome Chave et al.   ECOLOGY LETTERS

Germination requirements and seed mass of slow- and fast- colonizing temperate forest herbs along a latitudinal gradient

(2009) Bente J. Graae et al.   ECOSCIENCE

A multi-trait test of the leaf-height-seed plant strategy scheme with 133 species from a pine forest flora

(2009) Daniel C. Laughlin et al.   FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY

Global patterns in plant height

(2009) Angela T. Moles et al.   JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY

Evidence of the ‘plant economics spectrum’ in a subarctic flora

(2009) Grégoire T. Freschet et al.   JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY

The leaf size/number trade-off in herbaceous angiosperms

(2009) T. Whitman et al.   Journal of Plant Ecology

The role of biotic interactions in altering tree seedling responses to an extreme climatic event

(2009) Patrick Saccone et al.   JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE

The importance of wood traits and hydraulic conductance for the performance and life history strategies of 42 rainforest tree species

(2009) Lourens Poorter et al.   NEW PHYTOLOGIST

The role of Rubisco and cell walls in the interspecific variation in photosynthetic capacity

(2009) Kouki Hikosaka et al.   OECOLOGIA

Are you strong enough to carry that seed? Seed size/body size ratios influence seed choices by rodents

(2008) Alberto Muñoz et al.   ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR

The Relationships of Wood-, Gas- and Water Fractions of Tree Stems to Performance and Life History Variation in Tropical Trees

(2008) Lourens Poorter   ANNALS OF BOTANY

Research frontiers in climate change: Effects of extreme meteorological events on ecosystems

(2008) Anke Jentsch et al.   COMPTES RENDUS GEOSCIENCE

ARE FUNCTIONAL TRAITS GOOD PREDICTORS OF DEMOGRAPHIC RATES? EVIDENCE FROM FIVE NEOTROPICAL FORESTS

(2008) L. Poorter et al.   ECOLOGY

Offspring for the next generation: most are produced by small plants within herbaceous populations

(2008) Jesse Chambers et al.   EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY

A global study of relationships between leaf traits, climate and soil measures of nutrient fertility

(2008) Jenny C. Ordoñez et al.   GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY

Evolution of Seed Size and Biotic Seed Dispersal in Angiosperms: Paleoecological and Neoecological Evidence

(2008) Ove Eriksson   INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PLANT SCIENCES

Impact of abundance weighting on the response of seed traits to climate and land use

(2008) Robin J. Pakeman et al.   JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY

A parsimonious combination of functional traits predicting plant response to disturbance and soil fertility

(2008) Anke Kühner et al.   JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE