Vegetation green-up is occurring earlier due to climate warming across the Northern Hemisphere, with substantial infuences on ecosystems. However, it is unclear whether temperature responses differ among various green-up stages. Using high-temporal-resolution satellite data of vegetation greenness and averaging over northern vegetation (30–75° N), we found the negative interannual partial correlation between the middle green-up stage timing (50% greenness increase in spring–summer) and temperature (R_P = −0.73) was stronger than those for the onset (15% increase, R_P = −0.65) and end (90% increase, R_P = −0.52) of green-up during 2000–2022. Spatially, at high latitudes, the middle green-up stage showed stronger temperature responses than the onset, associated with greater low-temperature constraints and stronger control of snowmelt on green-up onset as well as greater spring frost risk. At middle latitudes, correlations with temperature were similar between the onset and middle stages of green-up, except for grasslands of the Mongolian Plateau and interior western USA, where correlations with temperature were weaker for the middle stage due to water limitation. In contrast, the end of the green-up showed weaker temperature responses than the middle due to insuffcient water and high climatic temperature during the end of the green-up in most of the study region, except for cold regions in the interior western USA, western Russia and the Tibetan Plateau, where temperature was still a main driver during end of green-up. Our fndings underscore the differences in temperature responses among green-up stages, which alters the temporal alignment between plants and environmental resources.

The evolution and expression of floral traits are responsive to selection pressure from biotic and abiotic factors. Although floral traits significantly vary among environments, the flower remains unchanged. We aimed to understand the adaptation of Epimedium chlorandrum of floral traits to a frequently nocturnally rainy and wet environments and the roles of floral traits in pollination and reproduction. We observed flowering phenology, measured floral characteristics including the number of pollen grains and ovules per flower, measured pollen viability and stigma receptivity, tested the volume and sugar concentration of nectar and conducted flower-visit observations in this species. Different pollination treatments were performed to characterize the breeding system. The inner sepals and highly curved longer spurs of E. chlorandrum jointly formed an umbrella that shielded the anthers and stigma from rain wash and prevented nectar dilution. Epimedium chlorandrum was visited by six species, while Bombus trifasciatus was the only effective pollinator and fed on the nectar. One flower secreted approximately 17.06 µL of nectar with a 29.19 g/100 mL sugar concentration, and the pollination efficiency of B. trifasciatus was positively associated with the nectar sugar concentration. The self- and open-pollination treatments resulted in fewer fertile seeds than the cross-pollination treatment. In contrast, the autonomous self- pollination treatment failed to yield fertile seeds. In summary, pollen limitation caused by harsh weather and pollinator shortage occurred during the pollination process of E. chlorandrum, which was partially alleviated by self-compatibility.

glmm.hp is an R package designed to evaluate the relative importance of collinear predictors within generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs). Since its initial release in January 2022, it has been rapidly gained recognition and popularity among ecologists. However, the previous glmm.hp package was limited to work GLMMs derived exclusively from the lme4 and nlme packages. The latest glmm.hp package has extended its functions. It has integrated results obtained from the glmmTMB package, thus enabling it to handle zero-inflated generalized linear mixed models (ZIGLMMs) effectively. Furthermore, it has introduced the new functionalities of commonality analysis and hierarchical partitioning for multiple linear regression models by considering both unadjusted R₂ and adjusted R2 Related Articles | Metrics

Drought represents a paramount abiotic stressor constraining global agroforestry productivity. Plants have evolved multifaceted adaptive strategies involving active modulation of symbiotic microbial communities to mitigate drought stress. These plant-associated microbes enhance plant drought adaptation via five principal mechanisms: (i) extracellular polymeric substance-mediated biofilm formation on plant surface enhances hydroregulation and edaphic structural stability; (ii) osmoprotectant biosynthesis (e.g., proline) maintains cellular osmotic equilibrium; (iii) synthesizing antioxidants to reduce damage from reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress; (iv) regulating plant phytohormone metabolism by secreting hormones (e.g. indole-3-acetic acid) and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic deaminase; (v) emitting signaling molecules (e.g. volatile organic compounds, hormones and enzymes) to activate plant drought adaptation. Future researches should focus on the development of host-specific drought-adaptive microbial consortia while elucidating phyllosphere–rhizosphere microbiome crosstalk, ultimately harnessing translational microbiome engineering to evaluate their efficacy in multi-environment agricultural systems.

Previous studies showed that moss stoichiometric characteristics were influenced by moss patch size, shrubs and the environment in the desert. The study of moss stoichiometry in different spatial distribution areas is crucial for an understanding of growth and adaptation strategy of the mosses. In this study, the dominant moss (Syntrichia caninervis) of biological soil crusts and soil under the moss patches in the Gurbantunggut Desert were selected to determine their stoichiometry in different dunes and sites. Moss stoichiometry and soil available nutrients were significantly influenced by different distribution areas except for moss C. The N_aboveground vs. N_belowground' P_aboveground vs. P_belowground and K_aboveground vs. K_belowground scaling exponents of moss were 0.251, 0.389 and 0.442, respectively. The N vs. P scaling exponents were 0.71, 0.84 in above- and below-ground parts of moss. Moss stoichiometry was disproportionately distributed in the above-ground and below-ground parts. Moreover, moss N, P and K elements were influenced by mean annual precipitation (MAP), longitude and soil nutrients. The nutrients of moss were affected by spatial distribution, mean annual temperature (MAT), MAP and soil nutrients. The growth of moss was limited by N element in the temperate desert. This study provides the stoichiometric characteristics of C, N, P and K of moss at different spatial scales and explores their relationships with environmental variables, which can help understand nutrient patterns and utilization strategy of N, P and K, and their potential responses to global climate changes in desert.

Given the current scenario of climate change and anthropogenic impacts, spatial predictions of biodiversity are fundamental to support conservation and restoration actions. Here, we compared different stacked species distribution models (S-SDMs) to forest inventories to assess if S-SDMs capture emerging properties and geographic patterns of species richness and composition of local communities in a biodiversity hotspot. We generated SDMs for 1499 tree species sampled in 151 sites across the Atlantic Forest. We applied four model stacking approaches to reconstruct the plant communities: binary SDMs (bS-SDMs), binary SDMs cropped by minimum convex polygons (bS-SDMs-CROP), stacked SDMs constrained by the observed species richness (cS-SDMs) and minimum convex polygons of species occurrences (MCPs). We compared the stacking methods with local communities in terms of species richness, composition, community prediction metrics and components of beta diversity—nestedness and turnover. S-SDMs captured general patterns, with bS-SDMs-CROP being the most parsimonious approach. Species composition differed between local communities and all stacking methods, in which bS-SDMs, bS-SDMs-CROP and MCPs followed a nested pattern, whereas species turnover was most important in cS-SDMs. S-SDMs varied in terms of performance, omission and commission errors, leading to a misprediction of some vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species. Despite differing from forest inventory data, S-SDMs captured part of the variation from local communities, representing the potential species pool. Our results support the use of S-SDMs to endorse biodiversity synthesis and conservation planning at coarse scales and warn of potential misprediction at local scales in megadiverse regions.

Phylosymbiosis, the congruence of microbiome composition with host phylogeny, is a valuable framework for investigating plant–microbe associations and their evolutionary ecology. This review assesses the prevalence of phylosymbiosis across the plant kingdom, elucidates the fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes contributing to its occurrence based on previous research and explores commonly used methods for identifying phylosymbiosis. We find that the presence of phylosymbiosis may be influenced by both phylogenetic distance and the taxonomic level at which host plants are examined, with the strength of associations potentially decreasing as the taxonomic scale becomes finer. Notably, the endophytic microbiome exhibits a stronger phylosymbiosis signal compared with the epiphytic or rhizosphere-associated microbiomes. Microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria can yield highly variable evidence for phylosymbiosis due to differences in colonization, transmission or functional characteristics. We also outline how the four community assembly processes (dispersal, selection, diversification and drift) contribute to the establishment and maintenance of host–microbe phylosymbiosis. Furthermore, we highlight the diversity of methods employed to detect phylosymbiosis, which involves three key processes: constructing host phylogenies, assessing microbial data and statistically evaluating the correlation between host phylogeny and microbial composition. Remarkably different methodologies across studies make comparisons between findings challenging. To advance our understanding, future research is expected to explore phylosymbiosis at lower taxonomic levels and investigate different microbial communities coexisting synergistically within the same host. Understanding the relative importance of community assembly processes in driving phylosymbiosis will be critical for gaining deeper insights into the ecology and evolution of host–microbe interactions.

The tree height-diameter at breast height (H-DBH) and crown radius-DBH (CR-DBH) relationships are key for forest carbon/biomass estimation, parameterization in vegetation models and vegetation-atmosphere interactions. Although the H-DBH relationship has been widely investigated on site or regional scales, and a few of studies have involved CR-DBH relationships based on plot-level data, few studies have quantitatively verified the universality of these two relationships on a global scale. This study evaluated the ability of 29 functions to fit the H-DBH and CR-DBH relationships for six different plant functional types (PFTs) on a global scale, based on a global plant trait database. Results showed that most functions were able to capture the H-DBH relationship for tropical PFTs and boreal needleleaf trees relatively accurately, but slightly less for temperate PFTs and boreal broadleaf trees (BB). For boreal PFTs, the S-shaped Logistic function fitted the H-DBH relationship best, while for temperate PFTs the Chapman-Richards function performed well. For tropical needleleaf trees, the fractional function of DBH satisfactorily captured the H-DBH relationship, while for tropical broadleaf trees, the Weibull function and a composite function of fractions were the best choices. For CR-DBH, the fitting capabilities of all the functions were comparable for all PFTs except BB. The Logistic function performed best for two boreal PFTs and temperate broadleaf trees, but for temperate needleleaf trees and two tropical PFTs, some exponential functions demonstrated higher skill. This work provides valuable information for parameterization improvements in vegetation models and forest field investigations.

A meandering riverbank plays a vital role in maintaining natural river ecosystems, providing habitats for riparian vegetation. However, dams have significantly altered riverbank shapes. To restore the riparian ecosystems, it is imperative to understand how different riverbank curvatures influence them. This study aims to uncover the ecological impacts of riverbank curvature on the structure and assembly process of plant communities in the riparian zone of the Yangtze River, regulated by the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) in China. We categorized the riparian zones into four types: cove, lobe, wavy and linear shapes. We documented the composition and diversity of riparian plant communities. Our findings revealed that wavy and cove riverbanks exhibited greater species diversity (with Shannon–Wiener diversity index values 1.5× higher) compared to communities along linear riverbanks. Furthermore, the analysis of functional traits indicated that wavy riverbanks promoted the differentiation of plant functional traits, thus enhancing ecosystem functions, with functional dispersion index (FDis) values 1.3 times higher than those of linear riverbanks. Significant variations in the assembly of riparian communities were also observed among different riverbanks, with standardized effect size (SES) values indicating a higher degree of niche differentiation in cove riverbanks (SES = 0.4) compared to linear riverbanks (SES = –0.6). These results highlight the ecological importance of diverse riverbank curvatures in influencing the diversity, structure and assembly of riparian communities along the waterway. In summary, this study underscores the necessity of maintaining or restoring various natural morphological curvatures when rehabilitating riparian communities along rivers impacted by human activities.

Grazing exerts a profound influence on both the plant diversity and productivity of grasslands, while simultaneously exerting a significant impact on regulating grassland soil carbon sequestration. Moreover, besides altering the taxonomic diversity of plant communities, grazing can also affect their diversity of functional traits. However, we still poorly understand how grazing modifies the relationship between plant functional diversity (FD) and soil carbon sequestration in grassland ecosystems. Here, we conducted a grazing manipulation experiment to investigate the effects of different grazing regimes (no grazing, sheep grazing (SG) and cattle grazing (CG)) on the relationships between plant FD and soil carbon sequestration in meadow and desert steppe. Our findings showed that different livestock species changed the relationships between plant FD and soil organic carbon (SOC) in the meadow steppe. SG decoupled the originally positive relationship between FD and SOC, whereas CG changed the relationship from positive to negative. In the desert steppe, both SG and CG strengthened the positive relationship between FD and SOC. Our study illuminates the considerable impact of livestock species on the intricate mechanisms of soil carbon sequestration, primarily mediated through the modulation of various measures of functional trait diversity. In ungrazed meadows and grazed deserts, maintaining high plant FD is conducive to soil carbon sequestration, whereas in grazed meadows and ungrazed deserts, this relationship may disappear or even reverse. By measuring the traits and controlling the grazing activities, we can accurately predict the carbon sequestration potential in grassland ecosystems.

Climate refugia can serve as a remnant habitat or stepping stones for species dispersal under climate warming. The largest freshwater lake by surface area, Lake Superior, USA and Canada, serves as a model system for understanding cooling-mediated local refugia, as its cool water temperatures and wave action have maintained shoreline habitats suitable for southern disjunct populations of arctic–alpine plants since deglaciation. Here, we seek to explain spatial patterns and environmental drivers of arctic–alpine plant refugia along Lake Superior’s shores, and assess future risk to refugia under moderate (+3.5 °C) and warmest (+5.7 °C) climate warming scenarios. First, we examined how the interactive effects of summer surface water temperatures and wind affected onshore temperatures, resulting in areas of cooler refugia. Second, we developed an ecological niche model for the presence of disjunct arctic–alpine refugia (pooling 1253 occurrences from 58 species) along the lake’s shoreline. Third, we fit species distribution models for 20 of the most common arctic–alpine disjunct species and predicted presence to identify refugia hotspots. Finally, we used the two climate warming scenarios to predict changes in the presence of refugia and disjunct hotspots. Bedrock type, elevation above water, inland distance, July land surface temperature from MODIS/Terra satellite and near-shore depth of water were the best predictors of disjunct occurrences. Overall, we predicted 2236 km of the shoreline (51%) as disjunct refugia habitat for at least one species under current conditions, but this was reduced to 20% and 7% with moderate (894 km) and warmest (313 km) climate change projections.

In the Eurasian forest-steppe, with increasing aridity, the balance between naturally co-existing forest and grassland patches is expected to shift towards grassland dominance in the long run, although feedback mechanisms and changes in land-use may alter this process. In this study, we compared old and recent aerial photographs of Hungarian forest-steppes to find out whether and how the forest proportion and the number of forest patches change at the decadal time scale. The percentage area covered by forest significantly increased in all study sites. The observed forest encroachment may be a legacy from earlier land-use: due to ceased or reduced grazing pressure, forests are invading grasslands until the potential forest cover allowed by climate and soil is reached. The number of forest patches significantly increased at one site (Fülöpháza), while it decreased at two sites (Bugac and Orgovány) and showed no significant change at the fourth site (Tázlár). This indicates that forest encroachment can happen at least in two different ways: through the emergence of new forest patches in the grassland, and through the extension and coalescence of already existing forest patches. Though the present work revealed increasing tree cover at a decadal time scale, the dynamic process should be monitored in the future to see how the vegetation reacts to further aridification. This could help devise a conservation strategy, as the woody/non-woody balance has a profound influence on basic ecosystem properties.

Species coculture can increase agro-biodiversity and therefore constitutes an ecological intensification measure for agriculture. Rice-aquatic animal coculture, one type of species coculture, has been practiced and researched widely. Here, we review recent studies and present results of a quantitative analysis of literature on rice-aquatic animal coculture systems. We address three questions: (i) can rice yield and soil fertility be maintained or increased with less chemical input through rice-aquatic animal coculture? (ii) how do aquatic animals benefit the paddy ecosystem? (iii) how can coculture be implemented for ecological intensification? Meta-analysis based on published papers showed that rice-aquatic animal cocultures increased rice yield, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen and decreased insect pests and weeds compared with rice monocultures. Studies also showed that rice-aquatic animal cocultures reduced pesticide and fertilizer application compared with rice monocultures. Rice plants provide a beneficial environment for aquatic animals, leading to high animal activities in the field. Aquatic animals, in turn, help remove rice pests and act as ecological engineers that affect soil conditions, which favor the growth of rice plants. Aquatic animals promote nutrient cycling and the complementary use of nutrients between rice and aquatic animals, which enhances nutrient-use efficiency in the coculture. To generate beneficial outcomes, how to develop compatible partnerships between rice and aquatic animals, and compatible culturing strategies for coculture systems are the key points. Investigating which traits of aquatic animals and rice varieties could best match to create productive and sustainable coculture systems could be one of the future focuses.

In the early 20th century, numerous western botanists, often referred to as “plant hunters”, embarked on ambitious expeditions to China, playing a crucial role in the study of botany and botanical diversity. Despite their contributions, comprehensive assessments of their explorations are lacking. To bridge this gap, this article focuses on the work of Joseph Charles Francis Rock, a notable figure in that era. Our work revisits Rock’s botanical expeditions within the broader context of botanical diversity conservation. It outlines his historical experiences in collecting plants in China and enumerates the species composition and phenotypic traits of the plants he collected. Additionally, it also analyzes the spatial distribution of the species, the completeness of his collection, and the α-diversity and β-diversity of the plants he collected. Our findings reveal that Rock led four major botanical expeditions in China between 1922 and 1933, amassing a total of 28,184 sheets and 16,608 numbers across 204 families, 1,081 genera, and 4,231 species. His focus was predominantly on ornamental species, which exhibit a variety of flower colors and inflorescences. His collection work spanned 5 provinces, 35 cities, and 72 counties, with a notable concentration in the Hengduan Mountains, a current biodiversity hotspot. This study not only reconstructs Rock’s botanical legacy but also offers valuable historical data and fresh analytical insights for understanding contemporary plant diversity. It contributes to the ongoing discourse on the importance of preserving plant diversity as a cornerstone of environmental sustainability.

Seed dormancy ensures seedling establishment in the favorable season in a seasonally changing environment. Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis Sieb. et Zucc.) seeds have morphophysiological dormancy after dispersal in autumn. A small fraction of seeds germinates in the first spring, but most seeds germinate in the second spring following dispersal. It is not clear how dormancy status changes and thus drives germination characteristic. Fresh Korean pine seeds were buried between litterfall and soil in Fenglin National Nature Reserves, Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China, in middle October 2018 and regularly exhumed. Field germination percentage, embryo growth, seed viability and laboratory germination percentage of exhumed seeds were determined. The physiological dormancy part of morphophysiological dormancy was gradually released during the first winter, but reinduced in the first summer following dispersal. The reinduced physiological dormancy was broken again in the second autumn and winter. The morphological dormancy part of morphophysiological dormancy was slowly released over the first summer but rapidly broken during the second early and middle autumn. In the second spring, Korean pine seeds completely escaped from morphophysiological dormancy. The physiological dormancy part of morphophysiological dormancy was completely released, but the morphological dormancy part was still maintained, leading to very low germination in the first spring in the field. Relief of morphophysiological dormancy enables a high percentage of seeds to germinate at relatively low temperature (alternating day/night temperature above 10/5 °C) in the second spring. Korean pine provides an example of the change in dormancy status of seeds with morphophysiological dormancy.

Multiple elements are critical for plant growth and survival, community structure and vegetation function. Chemical diversity, defined as the ranges in element concentrations of plant species within communities, could provide essential insights into plant nutrient strategies and community assembly rules. However, little is known about the chemical diversity of multi-elements besides N and P, and current understanding of chemical diversity is largely based on aboveground plant traits. We investigated understory plant communities in forest swamps along a local soil chemical gradient and determined 11 major and trace elements in leaves and roots of dominant and subordinate plants. Using n-dimensional hypervolume, we examined the changes in leaf and root chemical diversity and their linkages with soil properties. Plant chemical diversity decreased significantly with soil Al, Mn, Mg and Zn concentrations, but showed no relationships with soil N, P, K, Na, and Fe concentrations, soil pH and C:N. These patterns also held after controlling for species richness and soil moisture. Furthermore, leaf and root chemical diversity was positively correlated and showed similar relationships with soil factors. Root chemical diversity was not significantly higher than leaf chemical diversity. Our results emphasized the important role of soil trace elements for plant chemical diversity along the local soil chemical gradient. Similar patterns and extent of leaf and root chemical diversity may indicate similar local-scale environmental constraint on aboveand belowground plant chemical diversity. These findings have important implications for plant community assembly and ecosystem functioning influenced by soil nutrient changes.

The ecology of plant species relies on the synchronous functioning of leaves and roots, but few studies have simultaneously examined the community trait dispersion (CTD) patterns of both organs. We measured 16 analogous leaf and root traits on 44 co-occurring woody species in a subtropical forest in southern China, aiming to examine whether leaf and root traits were coordinated, organized into parallel trait axes, exhibited similar CTD, and displayed consistent responses in CTD and community-weighted means of (CWM) traits over environmental gradients. While the first axes of leaf and root trait variation similarly exhibited a fast-slow continuum, leaf traits covered a secondary “carbon economics” axis, contrasting to root traits depicting a collaboration axis reflecting species’ mycorrhizal dependency. Analogous leaf and root chemical traits were generally coordinated but less so for morphological traits. At the community level, changes in the CWM of the first axes were generally consistent among organs with more conservative traits found as increasing elevation but not for the second axis. While root traits became thinner and more conservative as soil phosphorus concentration decreased, leaf traits rarely varied. When different trait axes were combined, leaf traits were overdispersed but tended to converge with increased elevation and soil potassium and phosphorus levels, whereas root traits were clustered but tended to diverge along the same gradients. Our study highlights fine filtering of different suites of traits above- and belowground, which in turn might reduce overall niche overlap among species and promote coexistence with diverse functional designs.

Ecological intensification (EI) is the enhancement of ecosystem services to complement or substitute for the role of anthropogenic inputs in maintaining or increasing yields. EI has potential to increase farming’s environmental sustainability, e.g. reducing environmentally harmful management activities while sustaining yields. EI is based upon ecological processes which in turn are influenced by biodiversity. We review how biodiversity, particularly vascular plant diversity, can regulate ecosystem processes relevant to EI at multiple spatial scales. At an individual plant genotype level, complementarity in functional traits has a direct impact on productivity. At in-field, population level, mixtures of crop types confer resilience to minimize the risk of pest and disease incidence and spread. Scaling up to the field level, a diversity of non-crop plants (i.e. weeds) provides resources necessary for in-field functional processes, both below ground (carbon inputs, decomposition) and above ground (resource continuity for pollinators and natural enemies). At the landscape scale, mosaics of semi-natural and managed vegetation provide buffers against extreme events through flood and drought risk mitigation, climate amelioration and pest population regulation. Overall this emphasizes the importance of heterogeneity across scales in maintaining ecosystem functions in farmland. Major research challenges highlighted by our review include the need: to better integrate plant functional diversity (from traits to habitat scales) into cropping system design; to quantify the (likely interactive) contribution of plant diversity for effective EI relative to other management options; and to optimize through targeted management the system function benefits of biodiversity for resilient, efficient and productive agroecosystems.

Variations in plant traits are indicative of plant adaptations to forest environments, and studying their relationships with tree growth provides valuable insights into forest regeneration. The spatial arrangement of plant seeds within the forest litter or soil critically influences the variations of root-leaf traits, thereby affecting the adaptive strategies of emerging seedlings. However, our current understanding of the impacts of individual root-leaf traits on seedling growth in different relative position, and whether these traits together affect growth, remains limited. This study focuses on the dominant tree species, Castanopsis kawakamii, within the Sanming C. kawakamii Nature Reserve of China. The present experiment aimed to examine the variations in root-leaf traits of seedling, focus on the relative positions of seeds within different layers: beneath or above the litter layer, or within the bare soil layer (without litter). Our findings provided evidence supporting a coordinated relationship between root and leaf traits, wherein leaf traits varied in conjunction with root traits in the relative positions of seeds. Specifically, we observed that seedlings exhibited higher values for specific leaf area and average root diameter, while displaying lower root tissue density. The mixed model explained 86.1% of the variation in root-leaf traits, surpassing the variation explained by the relative positions. Furthermore, soil nitrogen acted as a mediator, regulating the relationship between seedling growth and root-leaf traits, specifically leaf dry matter content and root tissue density. Therefore, future studies should consider artificially manipulating tree species diversity based on root-leaf traits characteristics to promote forest recovery.

The decline in tree growth has become a global issue. It is critically important to explore the factors affecting tree growth under the background of global climate change to understand tree growth models. A database was established based on Robinia pseudoacacia growth and its driving factors on China’s Loess Plateau. Linear regression and three machine learning methods, including support vector machine, random forest (RF) and gradient boosting machine were used to develop R. pseudoacacia growth models considering forest age, density, climate factors and topographic factors. The root mean square deviation method was adopted to quantitatively assess the relationship between tree growth and soil properties. The average tree height of R. pseudoacacia on the Loess Plateau was 8.8 ± 0.1 m, the average diameter at breast height (DBH) was 10.4 ± 0.1 cm and the average crown diameter was 3.2 ± 0.1 m. The RF model was a fast and effective machine learning method for predicting R. pseudoacacia growth, which showed the best simulation capability and could account for 67% of tree height variability and 55% of DBH variability. Model importance indicated that forest age and stand density were the main factors predicting R. pseudoacacia growth, followed by climate factors. The trade-off between R. pseudoacacia growth and soil properties revealed that soil texture and soil pH were the primary determinants of R. pseudoacacia growth in this region. Our synthesis provides a good framework for sustainable forest management in vulnerable ecological areas under future climate change.

Many grasses are infected by systemic fungal endophytes that occur in aboveground plant tissues. Both aboveground endophytic fungi and belowground soil microbes can influence plant growth, but studies on their simultaneous effects on plant growth and competitiveness are limited. This study aims to investigate whether the role of aboveground endophytic fungi in the growth and competitive ability of the host grasses was influenced by soil microbes. In this study, we used Epichloë endophyte-infected and endophyte-free Achnatherum sibiricum as plant materials. A wet sieving method was adopted to obtain microbial inocula with different diversities (com, combined microbe fraction, high diversity; sm, small microbe fraction, low diversity). A three-factor randomized block design was used. The first factor was the endophyte infection status of A. sibiricum. The second factor was the microbial composition of the soil inocula. The third factor was the planting type. Growth and competitive characters were measured after 16 weeks. The results showed that a soil microbe inoculation was detrimental to the growth of A. sibiricum. Epichloë endophytes significantly mitigated the inhibitory effect of soil microbes on A. sibiricum planted alone. When A. sibiricum was planted with Stipa grandis, there was a significant interaction between Epichloë endophytes and soil microbes on the interspecific competition of A. sibiricum. When inoculated with small microbial community fraction, Epichloë endophytes significantly improved the interspecific competitive ability of host plants. When inoculated with combined microbial community fraction, however, Epichloë endophytes had no significant effect on host competition. The results showed that the interaction between Epichloë endophytes and soil microbes contributed more to the interspecific competitive ability than either Epichloë endophytes or soil microbes alone.

Drought can greatly impact the biodiversity of an ecosystem and play a crucial role in regulating its functioning. However, the specific mechanisms by which drought mediate the biodiversity effect (BE) on community biomass in above- and belowground through functional traits remain poorly understood. Here, we conducted a common garden experiment in a greenhouse, which included two plant species richness levels and two water addition levels, to analyze the effects of biodiversity on aboveground biomass (AGB), belowground biomass (BGB) and total biomass (TB), and to quantify the relationship between BEs and functional traits under drought conditions. Our analysis focused on partitioning BEs into above- and belowground complementarity effect (CE) and selection effect (SE) at the species level, which allowed us to better understand the impacts of biodiversity on community biomass and the underlying mechanisms. Our results showed that plant species richness stimulated AGB, BGB and TB through CEs. Drought decreased AGB, BGB and TB, simultaneously. In addition, the aboveground CE was positively associated with the variation in plant height. SEs in above- and belowground were negatively correlated with the community mean plant height and root length, respectively. Furthermore, drought weakened the aboveground CE by decreasing variation in plant height, resulting in a reduction in AGB and TB. Our findings demonstrate that the complementarity of species is an important regulator of community biomass in above- and belowground, the dynamics of biomass under environmental stress are associated with the response of sensitive compartments.

Expansion of global trade and acceleration of climate change dramatically promote plant invasions. As a result, a large number of habitats harbor multiple invasive plant species. However, patterns of invasive interactions and the drivers mediating their interactions remain unclear. In this greenhouse, potted plant study, we tested the impacts of 18 invasive plant species on the growth of target invader Erigeron canadensis which is dominant in central China. Neighboring invasive species belong to three functional groups (grass, forb and legume) and have different levels of relatedness to E. canadensis. Growth of E. canadensis’ strongly depended on the identity of neighboring invaders. Some neighboring invasive species suppressed growth of E. canadensis, others had no effect, while some promoted growth of E. canadensis. Through analyses of functional and phylogenetic similarities between the target species and neighboring invaders, we showed that two factors probably play roles in determining the relative responses of E. canadensis. Generally, E. canadensis responded negatively to invasive grasses and forbs, while it responded positively to invasive legumes. Furthermore, the negative responses to neighboring invasive grasses and forbs increased with increasing phylogenetic distance between the neighbors and E. canadensis. In contrast, the positive responses to invasive legumes did not depend on phylogenetic distance from E. canadensis. Our results suggest that successful invasion of E. canadensis probably depends on the identity of co-occurring invasive plant species. Interactions between E. canadensis and other invasive species should help managers select management priorities.

Invasive plant species pose signifcant ecological and economic threats due to their establishment and dominance in non-native ranges. Previous studies have yielded mixed results regarding the plants’ adaptive mechanisms for thriving in new environments, and particularly, little is known about how the phenotypic plasticity of growth and defense-related traits may facilitate plant invasion. This study addressed these uncertainties by employing the aggressive weed Reynoutria japonica as a study model. We examined the differences in growth, defenserelated traits and biomass allocation between R. japonica populations from native and introduced ranges grown in two common gardens with distinct climate conditions. Our results demonstrated that while the introduced populations did not exhibit increases in height and total dry mass, nor reductions in leaf defense levels, their investment in leaf production was signifcantly higher compared to the native populations. Additionally, introduced populations displayed greater phenotypic plasticity in clonal ramet but less phenotypic plasticity in biomass production than native populations across varying environments. These fndings highlight the roles of phenotypic plasticity and specifc trait adaptations, such as clonality, in the successful invasion of R. japonica. This study has important implications for managing invasive plant species under changing environmental conditions.

The rapid uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its aridification has significantly affected the distribution and community structure of the plants in these regions. However, most of the studies have focussed on vascular plants, and it has been unclear whether bryophytes, which are haploid plants, had similar historical population dynamics to other vascular plants during the dramatic geological and climatic environment changes of the Quaternary. This study used Syntrichia caninervis Mitt as the research object and investigated its genetic variation, differentiation and population dynamic history in China. We genotyped 27 populations throughout the distributional range of S. caninervis using two chloroplast DNA regions and 19 nuclear microsatellite loci and supplemented these data with ecological niche modelling of the potential distribution areas from the last interglacial period. The results showed that genetic data consistently identified three clades: the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Pamir Plateau-TienShan and Central Asia. The genetic variation of Syntrichia caninervis mainly occurred within populations and in the populations within a specific region. However, there was a significant gene exchange between the different regions. S. caninervis may have expanded during the glacial period and shrank during the interglacial period. This study provides new evidence for the dynamic population history of drought-tolerant bryophytes in response to severe environmental changes during the Quaternary glacial and interglacial cycles.

Evergreen and deciduous species coexist in the subtropical forests in southeastern China. It has been suggested that phosphorus (P) is the main limiting nutrient in subtropical forests, and that evergreen and deciduous species adopt different carbon capture strategies to deal with this limitation. However, these hypotheses have not been examined empirically to a sufficient degree. In order to fill this knowledge gap, we measured leaf photosynthetic and respiration rates, and nutrient traits related to P-, nitrogen (N)- and carbon (C)-use efficiencies and resorption using 75 woody species (44 evergreen and 31 deciduous species) sampled in a subtropical forest. The photosynthetic N-use efficiency (PNUE), respiration rate per unit N and P (R_d,N and R_d,P, respectively) of the deciduous species were all significantly higher than those of evergreen species, but not in the case of photosynthetic P-use efficiency. These results indicate that, for any given leaf P, evergreen species manifest higher carbon-use efficiency (CUE) than deciduous species, a speculation that is empirically confirmed. In addition, no significant differences were observed between deciduous and evergreen species for nitrogen resorption efficiency, phosphorus resorption efficiency or N:P ratios. These results indicate that evergreen species coexist with deciduous species and maintain dominance in P-limited subtropical forests by maintaining CUE. Our results also indicate that it is important to compare the PNUE of deciduous species with evergreen species in other biomes. These observations provide insights into modeling community dynamics in subtropical forests, particularly in light of future climate change.

Rhizosheaths can form on the surface of rice (Oryza sativa L.) roots and improve the water-use efficiency of rice under drought stress. The microbes in rhizosheaths can also offer the potential to increase the resilience of rice to future drought. However, little is known about the microbial community in rhizosheath of rice under drought stress. In this study, we compared the root traits, rhizosheath formation and microbial community in the rhizosheath under three irrigation regimes, including well-watered and drought treatments I and II. The irrigation plays important roles in influencing the microbial composition and co-occurrence networks. Drought can promote the accumulation of beneficial microorganisms in rhizosheaths, such as bacteria that are members of the phylum Patescibacteria and the Massilia, Nocardioides, Frateuria and Angustibacter genera and fungi in the genus Talaromyces. However, drought can also induce risk factors for harmful fungi in rice rhizosheaths. Our results suggest that both the rhizosheath and microbes in rhizosheath can offer the potential to improve the resistance of rice to drought. In the future, the isolation and application of beneficial microorganisms in rhizosheaths and scientific planting methods should be studied for the green cultivation of rice.

Spatiotemporal variations in plant-pollinator interactions drive floral evolution and shape the diversity of flowers in angiosperms. However, the potential role of plant-pollinator interactions in driving floral differentiation across flowering times within a population has not been documented. In this study, we aimed to quantify the variations in pollinator-mediated selection of floral traits across different flowering times of Primula sikkimensis (an entomophilous plant) in two natural populations. The results demonstrated that plants were shorter and produced fewer flowers with larger sizes in the early flowering time than in the late flowering time. In early flowering time, pollinator types were fewer and visitation frequency was lower than in late flowering time, resulting in lower female fitness. Pollinator-mediated selection of floral traits varied with flowering time, and more floral traits received pollinator-mediated selection during early flowering time. These results highlight that temporal variation in plant-pollinator interactions may have a potential role in driving floral diversification within the population.

In Mongolia, overgrazing and the resulting degradation of rangelands are recognized as serious issues. To address rangeland degradation, we sought to develop a broad-scale vegetation classification of Mongolian rangeland communities focusing on regional characteristics. Moreover, we sought to clarify the spatial distributions of communities and the environmental drivers of the distributions. Between 2012 and 2016, we surveyed vegetation in 278 plots (each 10 m × 10 m) in different regions of Mongolia (43-50° N, 87-119° E) in plots where grazing pressure is low relative to adjacent areas. The data were grouped into vegetation units using a modified two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN). We then explored the regional characteristics of species compositions and community distributions, as well as relationships between distributions and climatic variables. The modified TWINSPAN classified the vegetation data into three cluster groups, each of which corresponds to a particular type of zonal vegetation (i.e. forest steppe, steppe and desert steppe). The aridity index was identified as an important driver of the distributions of all cluster groups, whereas longitude and elevation were important determinants of the distribution of clusters within cluster groups. Western regions, which are characterized by higher elevation and continentality compared with eastern regions, have lower mean temperature and precipitation during the wettest quarter, leading to differences in species composition within cluster groups. Regional differences in species composition reflect differences in phytogeographic origin. Thus, the framework of species composition and distributional patterns in Mongolian rangeland communities was demonstrated in relation to climatic and geographical factors.

The accuracy of the simulation of carbon and water processes largely relies on the selection of atmospheric forcing datasets when driving land surface models (LSM). Particularly in high-altitude regions, choosing appropriate atmospheric forcing datasets can effectively reduce uncertainties in the LSM simulations. Therefore, this study conducted four offline LSM simulations over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) using the Community Land Model version 4.5 (CLM4.5) driven by four state-of-the-art atmospheric forcing datasets. The performances of CRUNCEP (CLM4.5 model default) and three other reanalysis-based atmospheric forcing datasets (i.e. ITPCAS, GSWP3 and WFDEI) in simulating the net primary productivity (NPP) and actual evapotranspiration (ET) were evaluated based on in situ and gridded reference datasets. Compared with in situ observations, simulated results exhibited determination coefficients (R²) ranging from 0.58 to 0.84 and 0.59 to 0.87 for observed NPP and ET, respectively, among which GSWP3 and ITPCAS showed superior performance. At the plateau level, CRUNCEP-based simulations displayed the largest bias compared with the reference NPP and ET. GSWP3-based simulations demonstrated the best performance when comprehensively considering both the magnitudes and change trends of TP-averaged NPP and ET. The simulated ET increase over the TP during 1982–2010 based on ITPCAS was significantly greater than in the other three simulations and reference ET, suggesting that ITPCAS may not be appropriate for studying long-term ET changes over the TP. These results suggest that GSWP3 is recommended for driving CLM4.5 in conducting long-term carbon and water processes simulations over the TP. This study contributes to enhancing the accuracy of LSM in water–carbon simulations over alpine regions.

Widely accepted universal models and hypotheses such as ‘high vein density-faster growth and higher productivity' hold that high leaf vein density may promote higher coupling efficiency of carbon and water, indicating that rapid individual growth and high stand productivity, have attracted huge interest. However, these models and hypotheses do not include enough gymnosperm samples, especially conifers cultivated in subtropics. We here examined the values and scaling relationships between leaf vein density and leaf functional traits sampled from center region of the distribution range of Cunninghamia lanceolate, which has been well known for rapid growth. We also retrieved an empirical dataset that included photosynthetic, biochemical, anatomical and hydraulic traits of Cunninghamia lanceolata. The leaf vein density (ranging from 0.34 to 1.09 mm mm-2) is extremely low compared to the reported global range (1 to 25 mm mm-2), whereas C. lanceolata is famous for both fast-growing and high-yielding in China for a long time. We further verified that higher vein densities were associated with smaller leaves (r = -0.71, P < 0.001), which is consistent with that found in angiosperms. However, we found that vein density-thickness correlations and leaf lifespan plasticity showed opposite trends for C. lanceolate (negative) when compared with global species (positive), and such relationships may indicate the tradeoffs between functional efficiency and productivities. Our results provide an effective complementary assessment of general growth rules, including evaluation of the influence of regional plant trait characterization, configuration of plant species, and traits efficiency for hydraulic potential.

Knowledge concerning the processes involved in defining the boundaries between rainforests (fire-sensitive) and open formations (fire-tolerant) is essential to safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services, especially under climate change and increased anthropogenic pressure. Here, we investigated the main environmental factors involved in the co-occurrence of forest islands and humid grasslands located in a protected area in the Espinhaço Biosphere Reserve, southeastern Brazil. We used permanent plots to collect the soil variables (moisture and chemical properties) in the forest islands. For sampling in wet grasslands, we installed four lines of 30 m from the edge of the islands in different directions. Subsequently, we delimited three points on each line10 m apart, totaling 12 points per area. We also surveyed the vegetation cover before and after prescribed burns. The environmental variables were subjected to tests of means and principal component analysis. We observed higher values of potassium, sum of bases, cation exchange capacity and organic matter in soils from forest islands than in wet grasslands. Therefore, the boundaries’ definition between the two vegetation types appeared to be primarily related to soil fertility and moisture gradients. After prescribed burning of the areas, no regeneration of arboreal individuals was detected near the edges of the islands. Therefore, our results suggest that forest islands are unable to expand due to well-defined edapho-climatic conditions. Thus, these environments should be a target focus for designing public conservation policies because they increase the complexity of the landscape of Campos Rupestres vegetation (mountain rocky grasslands).

The survival and reproduction of plants in a particular region are closely related to the local ecological niche. The use of species distribution models based on the ecological niche concept to predict potential distributions can effectively guide the protection of endangered plants, prevention and control of invasive plants, and plant introduction and ex-situ conservation. However, traditional methods and processes for predicting potential distributions of plants are tedious and complex, requiring the collection and processing of large amounts of data and the manual operation of multiple tools. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve large-scale prediction of the potential distributions of plants. To address these limitations, by collecting and organizing a large amount of basic data, occurrence records, and environmental data and integrating species distribution models and mapping techniques, a workflow to automatically predict the potential distributions of Chinese plants was established, thus the innovative work of predicting the potential distributions of 32 000 species of plants in China was completed. Furthermore, an online platform for predicting plant distributions in China based on visualization technology was developed, providing a basis for sharing the prediction results across a wide range of scientists and technologists. Users can quickly access information about the potential distributions of plants in China, providing a reference for the collection, preservation, and protection of plant resources. In addition, users can quickly predict the potential distribution of a certain plant in a certain region across China according to specific needs, thus providing technical support for biodiversity conservation.

The biomass of wetland plants is highly responsive to environmental factors and plays a crucial role in the dynamics of the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool. In this study, we collected and analyzed global data on wetland plant biomass from 1980 to 2021. By examining 1134 observations from 182 published papers on wetland ecosystems, we created a comprehensive database of wetland plant above-ground biomass (AGB) and below-ground biomass (BGB). Using this database, we analyzed the biomass characteristics of different climate zones, wetland types and plant species globally. Based on this, we analyzed the differences between the biomass of different plant species and the linkage between AGB and BGB and organic carbon. Our study has revealed that wetland plant AGB is greater in equatorial regions but BGB is highest in polar areas, and lowest in arid and equatorial zones. For plant species, the BGB of the Poales is higher than the AGB but Caryophyllales, Cyperales and Lamiales have higher AGB. Moreover, our findings indicate that BGB plays a more significant role in contributing to the organic carbon pool compared to AGB. Notably, when BGB is less than 1 t C ha⁻¹, even slight changes in biomass can have a significant impact on the organic carbon pool. And we observed that the SOC increases by 5.7 t C ha⁻¹ when the BGB content is low, indicating that the SOC is more sensitive to changes in biomass under such circumstances. Our study provides a basis for the global response of AGB and BGB of wetland plants to organic carbon.

Changes in soil nitrogen mineralization can impact nutrient availability, and further affect plant growth. It is unclear, however, how temperature elevation in alpine grassland will affect soil net N mineralization rate (N_min) across altitudes. At six altitudes (3200-4200 m with an interval of 200 m) along a slope in Lenglong mountain in the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, we performed an in situ soil incubation experiment by using the resin-core method to assess altitudinal variations of N_min. Meanwhile, we evaluated the effects of temperature elevation on N_min and its temperature sensitivity (Q₁₀) through a soil downward transplantation experiment based on three reference baseline altitudes (3800, 4000 and 4200 m). The results showed that high altitudes generally led to low values of N_min. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that N_min along the altitude was mainly controlled by soil temperature. Increased temperature caused by the altitude transplantation significantly elevated N_min for all of the three reference altitudes. The value of Q₁₀ was 3.4 for soil samples transplanted from the reference altitude of 4200 m, which was about twice that of the lower reference altitudes of 4000 and 3800 m.

Studying the start (SOS) and end (EOS) of the vegetation growing season can improve vegetation prediction under climate change. Climatic factors have temporal effects on vegetation growth, including the no time effect (no), time-lag effect (lag), time-accumulation effect (acc), and both time-lag and -accumulation effects (lagacc). The linear regression equations between SOS/EOS and climatic factors were constructed for the Loess Plateau (LP). Subsequently, we analyzed the effects of single and multiple climatic factors on vegetation phenology under four temporal effect scenarios and investigated the response of vegetation phenology to the time-lag and time-accumulation effects of climatic factors, under the lagacc scenario. Among the four temporal effects, lagacc explained the effects of climate on vegetation phenology to the greatest degree, and it is the optimal temporal effect for simulating the relationship between vegetation phenology and climate on the LP. Moreover, the explanation degrees of multiple climatic factors were higher than those of single climatic factors across different temporal effects and vegetation types. Simultaneously considering multiple climatic factors improved predictability of their impact on vegetation phenology. Under lagacc, responses of SOS to temperature (TMP) and precipitation (PRE) exhibited 1.44 ± 0.43/3.49 ± 0.85 and 1.38 ± 0.30/3.38 ± 0.71 months lag/accumulation, respectively, and responses of EOS to TMP and PRE exhibited 1.35 ± 0.17/2.37 ± 0.34 and 1.59 ± 0.19/4.16 ± 0.50 months lag/accumulation, respectively, across the entire LP. The results show that both lagacc and multiple climatic factors require consideration when establishing relationships between climatic factors and vegetation phenology.

One central challenge for humanity is to mitigate and adapt to an ongoing climate and biodiversity crisis while providing resources to a growing human population. Ecological intensification (EI) aims to maximize crop productivity while minimizing impacts on the environment, especially by using biodiversity to improve ecosystem functions and services. Many EI measures are based on trophic interactions between organisms (e.g. pollination, biocontrol). Here, we investigate how research on multitrophic effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning could advance the application of EI measures in agriculture and forestry. We review previous studies and use qualitative analyses of the literature to test how important variables such as landuse parameters or habitat complexity affect multitrophic diversity, ecosystem functions and multitrophic biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships. We found that positive effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functions are prevalent in production systems, largely across ecosystem function dimensions, trophic levels, study methodologies and different ecosystem functions, however, with certain context dependencies. We also found strong impacts of land use and management on multitrophic biodiversity and ecosystem functions. We detected knowledge gaps in terms of data from underrepresented geographical areas, production systems, organism groups and functional diversity measurements. Additionally, we identified several aspects that require more attention in the future, such as trade-offs between multiple functions, temporal dynamics, effects of climate change, the spatial scale of the measures and their implementation. This information will be vital to ensure that agricultural and forest landscapes produce resources for humanity sustainably within the environmental limits of the planet.

The evolution of land use/land cover (LULC) patterns significantly influences the dynamics of carbon storage (CS) in terrestrial ecosystems. In response to future environmental changes, however, most studies fail to synthesize the effects of policy pathways and evolving core driving factors on LULC projections. This article presents a systematic framework to assess the dynamic response of the terrestrial ecosystem CS to future LULC changes. After investigating spatiotemporal characteristics and driving forces, policy effects and future core driving factors are integrated into the improved Markov–future land use simulation model to project LULC across diverse scenarios. Then the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Service and Tradeoff model is coupled to explore CS dynamics with LULC changes. This framework was applied to the Weihe River Basin. The finding reveals that the overall proportion of cultivated land, forestland and grassland is above 85% and is significantly influenced by policy effects. Precipitation, temperature, population density and gross domestic product are core driving factors of LULC changes. Equal-interval projection is a viable approach to mitigate policy impacts by avoiding error propagation while coupling future core driving factors to improve LULC projection accuracy. Ecological protection should be emphasized in the future. The rate of increase in CS is 1.25 and 1.63 times higher than the historical trend and economic development scenario, respectively, which alleviates carbon loss from the expansion of built-up land. This research provides a valuable reference for future insight and optimization of ecological conservation strategies.

Floral syndrome is one of the key components of plant pollination syndromes, affecting variety of evolutionary and ecological processes in angiosperms. The evolutionary transition from self-incompatible heterostyly to self-compatible homostyly occurred repeatedly in angiosperm families. Although the evolution of heterostyly and homostyly has been deeply studied, our understanding on their differences in ecological strategies is still lacking. In this work, using the floral syndrome and distributions of the Primula in China we compared the spatial pattern of floral syndrome frequency and its climatic determinants. Our results reveal that distylous and homostylous Primula have similar primary centers of species diversity in southwest China, while distylous species have larger range size than homostylous ones. Temperature seasonality is the dominant climate factor of these geographic patterns, but its effect is much stronger in distylous than in homostylous Primula. Distylous species have larger flower size and number, and fruit size than homostylous ones. Climate, especially temperature seasonality mainly influenced species range size via its effects on floral syndrome. Our study suggests that homostyly is likely derived from heterostylous ancestors in similar geographical context, and larger reproductive investment in floral phenotype may provide compensatory mechanisms for obligate out-breeding heterostyly. Future investigations regarding the evolutionary history and tolerance or resistance to environmental change between distyly and homostyly may greatly advance our understanding of their spatial pattern and adaptative differences.

Patterns in functional trait variation associated with the ecological strategies of lianas and trees in subtropical montane forests remain poorly understood due to lack of trait comparisons. Here, we filled this gap by investigating trait divergence between lianas and trees with different leaf habits for 13 traits of 33 species (7 deciduous and 4 evergreen liana species, and 10 deciduous and 12 evergreen tree species) in a subtropical montane forest in southwestern China. We found that lianas had significantly larger stem xylem vessel diameter, higher theoretical hydraulic conductivity, specific leaf area, leaf nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations, but lower leaf dry-matter content and N/P ratio than sympatric trees, indicating that lianas employ an acquisitive ecological strategy, with a more efficient stem hydraulic system and more productive leaves. In contrast to trees, lianas exhibited a larger variation in vessel diameter, with a few wide and many narrow vessels in the xylem, indicating a greater vessel dimorphism. Growth form explained 48.7% of the total trait variation, while leaf habit only explained 3.8% of trait variation, without significant interaction between growth form and leaf habit. In addition, significant stem-leaf trait relationships were only found in trees, but not in lianas, indicating decoupling of stem hydraulic function and leaf traits in subtropical lianas. These results suggest that subtropical montane lianas and trees differ strikingly in stem and leaf functional traits. Further studies are warranted to strengthen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the strong divergence in ecological strategies between lianas and trees in subtropical forest ecosystems.