William K. Cornwell

TL;DR: Picante is a software package that provides a comprehensive set of tools for analyzing the phylogenetic and trait diversity of ecological communities and performs tests for phylogenetic signal in trait distributions, community structure and species interactions.

TL;DR: This new handbook has a better balance between whole-plant traits, leaf traits, root and stem traits and regenerative traits, and puts particular emphasis on traits important for predicting species’ effects on key ecosystem properties.

TL;DR: TRY as discussed by the authors is a global database of plant traits, including morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants and their organs, which can be used for a wide range of research from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology to biogeography.

TL;DR: The magnitude of species-driven differences is much larger than previously thought and greater than climate-driven variation, and the decomposability of a species' litter is consistently correlated with that species' ecological strategy within different ecosystems globally, representing a new connection between whole plant carbon strategy and biogeochemical cycling.

TL;DR: It is shown that woody clades successfully moved into freezing-prone environments by either possessing transport networks of small safe conduits and/or shutting down hydraulic function by dropping leaves during freezing.