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Canopy lianas differ considerably from trees in terms of wood anatomical structure, and they are suggested to have a demographic advantage—faster growth and higher survival—than trees. However, it remains unclear whether these anatomical and demographic differences persist at the seedling stage, when most liana species are self-standing and, consequently, might be ecologically similar to trees. We assessed how self-standing liana and tree seedlings differ in relation to wood anatomy, growth, and survival. We measured 12 wood traits and monitored seedling growth and survival over one year for 10 self-supporting liana and 10 tree seedling species from three tropical dry forests in Colombia. Liana and tree seedlings exhibited similar survival rates and wood anatomies for traits related to water storage and mechanical support. Yet, for traits associated with water transport, liana seedlings showed greater variability in vessel lumen size, while tree seedlings had higher vessel density. Also, the liana relative growth rate was significantly higher than for trees. These results indicate that, while self-supporting liana and tree seedlings are anatomically similar in terms of mechanical support and water storage—likely contributing to their similar survival rates—liana seedlings have a growth advantage, possibly due to more efficient water transport. These findings suggest that the well-documented anatomical and demographic differences between adult lianas and trees may depend on the liana's developmental stage, with more efficient water transport emerging as a key trait from early stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal trait data are scattered across several datasets, making it challenging to compile and compare trait information across different groups. For plants, the TRY database has been an unwavering success for those ecologists interested in addressing how plant traits influence a wide variety of processes and patterns, but the same is not true for most animal taxonomic groups. Here, we introduce ZooTraits, a Shiny app designed to help users explore and obtain animal trait data for research in ecology and evolution. ZooTraits was developed to tackle the challenge of finding in a single site information of multiple trait datasets and facilitating access to traits by providing an easy‐to‐use, open‐source platform. This app combines datasets centralized in the Open Trait Network, raw data from the AnimalTraits database, and trait information for animals compiled by Gonçalves‐Souza et al. (2023, Ecology and Evolution 13, e10016). Importantly, the ZooTraits app can be accessed freely and provides a user‐friendly interface through three functionalities that will allow users to easily visualize, compare, download, and upload trait data across the animal tree of life—ExploreTrait, FeedTrait, and GetTrait. By using ExploreTrait and GetTrait, users can explore, compare, and extract 3954 trait records from 23,394 species centralized in the Open Traits Network, and trait data for ~2000 species from the AnimalTraits database. The app summarizes trait information for numerous taxonomic groups within the Animal Kingdom, encompassing data from diverse aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and various geographic regions worldwide. Moreover, ZooTraits enables researchers to upload trait information, serving as a hub for a continually expanding global trait database. By promoting the centralization of trait datasets and offering a platform for data sharing, ZooTraits is facilitating advancements in trait‐based ecological and evolutionary studies. We hope that other trait databases will evolve to mirror the approach we have outlined here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary forests are increasingly important for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning. Yet, we know little on how species interactions shift across the wide range of life history strategies in the context of forest succession, especially for non‐trophic animal social systems.Using data from mixed‐species flocks (hereafter MSFs) and life history and morphological traits from the 'fast‐slow' continuum, we utilized a novel combination of network theory and trait‐based ecology to examine the assembly of associations of MSFs among species with different fast‐slow strategies across stages of forest succession that exhibit different degrees of forest complexity.MSFs formed the most connected and cohesive network in the intermediate successional stage. In contrast, we observed the least connected and cohesive network in the early stage, and a strongly connected but intermediately cohesive network in the late stage. Fast species with smaller body size and mass, and larger clutch size, were gradually replaced by slow species during succession. Interspecific associations generally shifted from those among similarly fast species (early stage) to associations between fast and slow species (intermediate stage), and finally to those among similarly slow species (late stage).We suggest that vegetation complexity (e.g. tree size, height, diversity and canopy cover), related to the availability of resources and number of niches, shaped the network structure and functional composition of MSFs. Although the late successional forests play an irreplaceable role in protecting forest specialists (i.e. slow species), intermediate stage forests should be also protected, because the large‐sized networks formed by MSFs at intermediate stages can simultaneously conserve more species with varying ecological strategies. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A challenge: Variation is ubiquitous in nature across all spatial and temporal scales and underlies prominent ecological and evolutionary theories. Although understanding the causes and consequences of trait variation is a central goal of trait‐based ecology, the scaling of trait variance across space and time (variance scaling) is unresolved. A solution We argue that characterizing trait variance across spatio‐temporal scales using a combination of prominent power laws can elucidate the role of environmental variability in trait variation and potential mechanisms driving trait patterns. In particular, the species–time–area relationship and Taylor's power law help to establish a generalizable framework for developing and testing variance scaling theory. Finally, we outline priority research questions and tractable systems for answering them. Successional forests, long‐term forest monitoring networks and censuses of short‐lived taxa are ideal for coupling high‐resolution environmental data with measurements of trait variance across scales to test the models proposed here. Main conclusions: Characterizing the behaviour of variance across spatio‐temporal scales is feasible and a prerequisite for developing a predictive theory of trait‐based ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants allocate biomass to different organs in response to resource variation for maximizing performance, yet we lack a framework that adequately integrates plant responses to the simultaneous variation in above‐ and below‐ground resources. Although traditionally, the optimal partition theory (OPT) has explained patterns of biomass allocation in response to a single limiting resource, it is well‐known that in natural communities multiple resources limit growth. We study trade‐offs involved in plant biomass allocation patterns and their effects on plant growth under variable below‐ and above‐ground resources—light, soil N and P—for seedling communities.We collected information on leaf, stem and root mass fractions for more than 1,900 seedlings of 97 species paired with growth data and local‐scale variation in abiotic resources from a tropical forest in China.We identified two trade‐off axes that define the mass allocation strategies for seedlings—allocation to photosynthetic versus non‐photosynthetic tissues and allocation to roots over stems—that responded to the variation in soil P and N and light. Yet, the allocation patterns did not always follow predictions of OPT in which plants should allocate biomass to the organ that acquires the most limiting resource. Limited soil N resulted in high allocation to leaves at the expense of non‐photosynthetic tissues, while the opposite trend was found in response to limited soil P. Also, co‐limitation in above‐ and below‐ground resources (light and soil P) led to mass allocation to stems at the expense of roots. Finally, we found that growth increased under high‐light availability and soil P for seedlings that invested more in photosynthetic over non‐photosynthetic tissues or/and that allocated mass to roots at the expense of stem.Synthesis. Biomass allocation patterns to above‐ and below‐ground tissues are described by two independent trade‐offs that allow plants to have divergent allocation strategies (e.g. high root allocation at the expense of stem or high leaf allocation at the expense of allocation to non‐photosynthetic tissues) and enhance growth under different limiting resources. Identifying the trade‐offs driving biomass allocation is important to disentangle plant responses to the simultaneous variation in resources in diverse forest communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual‐level demographic outcomes should be predictable upon the basis of traits. However, linking traits to tree performance has proven challenging likely due to a failure to consider physiological traits (i.e. hard‐traits) and the failure to integrate organ‐level and whole plant‐level trait information.Here, we modelled the survival rate and relative growth rate of trees while considering crown allocation, hard‐traits and local‐scale biotic interactions, and compared these models to more traditional trait‐based models of tree performance.We found that an integrative trait, total tree‐level photosynthetic mass (estimated by multiplying specific leaf area and crown area) results in superior models of tree survival and growth. These models had a lower AIC than those including the effect of initial tree size or any other combination of the traits considered. Survival rates were positively related to higher values of crown area and photosynthetic mass, while relative growth rates were negatively related to the photosynthetic mass. Relative growth rates were negatively related to a neighbourhood crowding index. Furthermore, none of the hard‐traits used in this study provided an improvement in tree performance models.Synthesis. Overall, our results highlight that models of tree performance can be greatly improved by including crown area information to generate a better understanding of plant responses to their environment. Additionally, the role of the hard‐traits in improving models of tree performance is likely dependent upon the level of stress (e.g. drought stress), micro‐environmental conditions or short‐term climatic variations that a particular forest experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental gradients act as potent filters on species distributions driving compositional shifts across communities. Compositional shifts may reflect differences in physiological tolerances to a limiting resource that result in broad distributions for tolerant species and restricted distributions for intolerant species (i.e. a nested pattern). Alternatively, trade‐offs in resource use or conflicting species' responses to multiple resources can result in complete turnover of species along gradients.We combined trait (leaf area, leaf mass per area, wood density and maximum height) and distribution data for 550 tree species to examine taxonomic and functional composition at 72 sites across strong gradients of soil phosphorus (P) and rainfall in central Panama.We determined whether functional and taxonomic composition was nested or turned over completely and whether community mean traits and species composition were more strongly driven by P or moisture.Turnover characterized the functional composition of tree communities. Leaf traits responded to both gradients, with species having larger and thinner leaves in drier and more fertile sites than in wetter and less fertile sites. These leaf trait–moisture relationships contradict predictions based on drought responses and suggest a greater role for differences in light availability than in moisture. Shifts in wood density and maximum height were weaker than for leaf traits with taller species dominating wet sites and low wood density species dominating P‐rich sites.Turnover characterized the taxonomic composition of tree communities. Geographic distances explained a larger fraction of variation for taxonomic composition than for functional composition, and community mean traits were more strongly driven by P than moisture.Synthesis. Our results offer weak support for the tolerance hypothesis for tree communities in central Panama. Instead, we observe functional and taxonomic turnover reflecting trade‐offs and conflicting species' responses to multiple abiotic factors including moisture, soil phosphorus and potentially other correlated variables (e.g. light). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]