title: Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition.
abstract: Phenotypic traits and their associated trade-offs have been shown to have globally consistent effects on individual plant physiological functions, but how these effects scale up to influence competition, a key driver of community assembly in terrestrial vegetation, has remained unclear. Here we use growth data from more than 3 million trees in over 140,000 plots across the world to show how three key functional traits--wood density, specific leaf area and maximum height--consistently influence competitive interactions. Fast maximum growth of a species was correlated negatively with its wood density in all biomes, and positively with its specific leaf area in most biomes. Low wood density was also correlated with a low ability to tolerate competition and a low competitive effect on neighbours, while high specific leaf area was correlated with a low competitive effect. Thus, traits generate trade-offs between performance with competition versus performance without competition, a fundamental ingredient in the classical hypothesis that the coexistence of plant species is enabled via differentiation in their successional strategies. Competition within species was stronger than between species, but an increase in trait dissimilarity between species had little influence in weakening competition. No benefit of dissimilarity was detected for specific leaf area or wood density, and only a weak benefit for maximum height. Our trait-based approach to modelling competition makes generalization possible across the forest ecosystems of the world and their highly diverse species composition.
authors.affiliation: Irstea, UR EMGR, 2 rue de la Papeterie BP-76, F-38402, St-Martin-d'Hères, France.|Univ. Grenoble Alpes, F-38402 Grenoble, France.|Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kunstler
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Falster
authors.affiliation: Forest Ecology and Conservation Group, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Coomes
authors.affiliation: Mathematical Sciences Institute, The Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hui
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia.|National Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney 2000, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Kooyman
authors.affiliation: Environmental Research Institute, School of Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Daniel C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Laughlin
authors.affiliation: Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lourens
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Poorter
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Pkwy, Regina SK S4S 0A2, Canada.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vanderwel
authors.affiliation: Cirad, UPR BSEF, F-34398 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Ghislain
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vieilledent
authors.affiliation: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Republic of Panama.
authors.forename: S Joseph
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aiba
authors.affiliation: INRA, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, BP 709, 97387 Kourou Cedex, France.|International Center for Tropical Botany, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baraloto
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3B3, Canada.|Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Landscape Dynamics Unit, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Caspersen
authors.affiliation: Systems Ecology, Department of Ecological Science, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J Hans C
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cornelissen
authors.affiliation: Cirad, UPR BSEF, F-34398 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gourlet-Fleury
authors.affiliation: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Forest Resources and Management Unit, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland.|University of Freiburg, Chair of Forestry Economics and Planning, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hanewinkel
authors.affiliation: Cirad, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, Campus Agronomique, BP 701, 97387 Kourou, France.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Herault
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans Knöll Str. 10, 07745 Jena, Germany.|German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kattge
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kurokawa
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502 Japan.
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Onoda
authors.affiliation: CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès 08193, Catalonia, Spain.|CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peñuelas
authors.affiliation: Plant Sciences (IBG-2), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Hendrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Poorter
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uriarte
authors.affiliation: Landcare Research, PO Box 40, Lincoln 7640, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK.|Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Science Building, University of Alcala, Campus Universitario, 28805 Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain.
authors.forename: Paloma
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Benito
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien 97401, Taiwan.
authors.forename: I-Fang
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Skogsmarksgränd, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ståhl
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Swenson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0QB, UK.|Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus PO Box 70377 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8377, USA.
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Skogsmarksgränd, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Bertil
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Westerlund
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute for Systematic, Botany and Functional Biodiversity, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 21 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.affiliation: Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Science Building, University of Alcala, Campus Universitario, 28805 Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zavala
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3B3, Canada.
authors.forename: Hongcheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus PO Box 70377 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8377, USA.
authors.forename: Jess K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.affiliation: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Landscape Dynamics Unit, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Niklaus E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Westoby
mesh_terms: D065928:Forests; D038622:Internationality; D008954:Models, Biological; D010641:Phenotype; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000502:physiology; D014197:Trees / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D014934:Wood / Q000032:analysis