Importance of the actual plant height in modulating the within-community spectrum of plant form and function
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Maximum height (H max ) is a principal driver or correlate of interspecific variation in many plant functional traits. Still, it remains unclear why leaf resource economic traits are invariant with H max at global scale and why broad-scale interspecific trait correlations are not retained at local scale. Here we proposed that the actual plant height (H act ), which is tightly linked with highly localized abiotic and biotic interactions, is more important than H max in determining plant morpho-physiological traits among locally co-occurring plants. We tested the idea across community, regional, and global scales. We also examined correlations among 22 traits, including leaf physiology, hydraulics, and crown architecture, within a subtropical forest in Eastern China. Additionally, we explored how H act -driven trait variations align with vertical patterns of microclimates. Results showed stronger correlations between leaf traits and H act at the community level, except for leaf area. Intraspecific variation exceeded interspecific variation, and trait correlations were stronger at the individual level than at the species level. H act positively correlated with traits like crown area, leaf mass per area, stomatal density, and hydraulic conductivity but negatively with stem hydraulic safety margin and leaf coverage. Vertical changes in photosynthetically active radiation explained most H act -driven trait variations. Our findings suggest that H act influences plant trade-offs in biomass allocation and photosynthetic-hydraulic limitations, shaping functional diversity within communities. This highlights H act as a key factor in balancing resource use, support, and water transport among coexisting plants.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".