ArticleNature2016
The global spectrum of plant form and function.
Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 746 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
746 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neutral interactions among non-native plants are common.The New phytologist · 2026Pooled it
- How Useful Are Plant Traits in Explaining Variation in Phyllosphere Microbial Abundance and Composition Across Hosts?Environmental microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Worldwide comparison of carbon stocks and fluxes between native and non-native forests.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Pooled it
- A Global Meta-Analysis of Passive Experimental Warming Effects on Plant Traits and Community Properties.Global change biology · 2025Pooled it
- Response diversity increases functional but decreases compositional stability of grassland communities.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Mining buried plant trait data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF): Comparison and integration with multiple plant trait databases.Applications in plant sciences · 2026Article
- Global grassland productivity and carbon storage benefit from functional diversity under climate change.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- A trait-based integration of competition and abiotic tolerance underlies plant success.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Restored wetlands: interplay between environmental variables, aboveground and belowground plant traits, and carbon cycling.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Herbivore species asynchrony underpins multitrophic stability across plants, herbivores and predators.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Plant Trait-Based Life Strategies of Overlapping Species Differ Between Anthropogenically Disturbed and Conserved Forests.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Anatomical and physiological trade-offs underlying the leaf economics spectrum in tropical Andean montane forests.Annals of botany · 2026Article
- Differentiation of Acclimation Responses and Seedling Source Effects in Deciduous and Evergreen Conifer Seedlings Under Cross-Altitude Transplantation.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Spatially explicit forecasts of tree insect and disease incidence across North American forests under future climate scenarios.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Which, when, and where traits matter: functional trait-mediated species associations shift with microenvironmental and climatic variation.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Remote Spectral Detection of Canopy Functional Dimensions Varying Within and Across Forest Types.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Native and Introduced Plants in a Managed Campus Landscape: Habitat Associations, Functional Overlap, and Taxonomic Patterns.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Advancing Symbiodiniaceae Functional Ecology Through a Trait-Based Framework.Ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Evolutionary history drives organ-specific variability in plant non-structural carbohydrates.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Biogeographical variation of angiosperm taxonomic traits exhibits a globally consistent structure.Nature plants · 2026Article
686 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
35 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Earth is home to a remarkable diversity of plant forms and life histories, yet comparatively few essential trait combinations have proved evolutionarily viable in today's terrestrial biosphere. By analysing worldwide variation in six major traits critical to growth, survival and reproduction within the largest sample of vascular plant species ever compiled, we found that occupancy of six-dimensional trait space is strongly concentrated, indicating coordination and trade-offs. Three-quarters of trait variation is captured in a two-dimensional global spectrum of plant form and function. One major dimension within this plane reflects the size of whole plants and their parts; the other represents the leaf economics spectrum, which balances leaf construction costs against growth potential. The global plant trait spectrum provides a backdrop for elucidating constraints on evolution, for functionally qualifying species and ecosystems, and for improving models that predict future vegetation based on continuous variation in plant form and function.
Indexed as
Identifiers
26700811What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.