title: Relationships among ecologically important dimensions of plant trait variation in seven neotropical forests.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  When ecologically important plant traits are correlated they may be said to constitute an ecological 'strategy' dimension. Through identifying these dimensions and understanding their inter-relationships we gain insight into why particular trait combinations are favoured over others and into the implications of trait differences among species. Here we investigated relationships among several traits, and thus the strategy dimensions they represented, across 2134 woody species from seven Neotropical forests.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six traits were studied: specific leaf area (SLA), the average size of leaves, seed and fruit, typical maximum plant height, and wood density (WD). Trait relationships were quantified across species at each individual forest as well as across the dataset as a whole. 'Phylogenetic' analyses were used to test for correlations among evolutionary trait-divergences and to ascertain whether interspecific relationships were biased by strong taxonomic patterning in the traits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The interspecific and phylogenetic analyses yielded congruent results. Seed and fruit size were expected, and confirmed, to be tightly related. As expected, plant height was correlated with each of seed and fruit size, albeit weakly. Weak support was found for an expected positive relationship between leaf and fruit size. The prediction that SLA and WD would be negatively correlated was not supported. Otherwise the traits were predicted to be largely unrelated, being representatives of putatively independent strategy dimensions. This was indeed the case, although WD was consistently, negatively related to leaf size.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The dimensions represented by SLA, seed/fruit size and leaf size were essentially independent and thus conveyed largely independent information about plant strategies. To a lesser extent the same was true for plant height and WD. Our tentative explanation for negative WD-leaf size relationships, now also known from other habitats, is that the traits are indirectly linked via plant hydraulics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia. iwright@rna.bio.mq.edu.au
authors.forename: Ian J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: David D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Ackerly
authors.forename: Frans
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bongers
authors.forename: Kyle E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Harms
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ibarra-Manriquez
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martinez-Ramos
authors.forename: Susan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Mazer
authors.forename: Helene C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Muller-Landau
authors.forename: Horacio
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Paz
authors.forename: Nigel C A
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Pitman
authors.forename: Lourens
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Poorter
authors.forename: Miles R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Silman
authors.forename: Corine F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Vriesendorp
authors.forename: Cam O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Westoby
authors.forename: S Joseph
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D005638:Fruit / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010802:Phylogeny; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D010944:Plants / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012639:Seeds / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014197:Trees; D014329:Tropical Climate