M. B. Walters

TL;DR: These results demonstrate convergent evolution and global generality in plant functioning, despite the enormous diversity of plant species and biomes, and have significant implications for global scale modeling of vegetation-atmosphere CO2 exchange.

TL;DR: It appears that a suite of traits including short leaf life—span and high leaf Nmass, SLA, LAR, and Amass interactively contribute to high growth rates in open—grown individuals, and the photosynthesis—leaf N relationship among species should be considered universal when expressed on a mass, but not on a leaf area, basis.

TL;DR: Testing for biome differences in the slope and intercept of interspecific relationships among leaf traits for more than 100 species in six distinct biomes of the Americas suggests a predictable set of scaling relationships among key leaf morphological, chemical, and metabolic traits that are replicated globally among terrestrial ecosystems regardless of biome or vegetation type.

TL;DR: Patterns of functional trait variation and trait correlations within and among habitats in relation to several environmental and trade‐off axes are described and whether such patterns reflect natural selection and can be considered plant strategies are asked.

TL;DR: The results indicate that species allocate resources towards a high photosynthetic assimilation rate for a brief time, or provide resistant physical structure that results in a lower rate of carbon assimilation over a longer time, but not both.