Explore the vast range of titles available.

Plant functional traits help determine resource acquisition strategies. Global trends at the interspecific scale suggest independence between leaf and root traits described by three functional dimensions: resource acquisition above‐ and belowground and degree of mycorrhizal collaboration belowground. However, there are ecological and evolutionary reasons to expect different patterns of variation within species, especially within seedlings—the stage at which most tree mortality occurs. Describing the intraspecific patterns of trait variation in seedlings will improve the understanding of tree populations' ability to cope with environmental change. We ask the following questions: (1) How do traits above‐ and belowground co‐vary within species? (2) How do traits relate to soil nutrients and light conditions? We collected root and leaf traits on 131 seedlings from four naturally occurring woody species across eight sites in a temperate, deciduous broadleaf forest in the USA. We measured traits reflecting resource use strategies—specific leaf area, leaf nitrogen, root nitrogen, and root tissue density—and those defining the collaboration axis—specific root length and root diameter. We measured light conditions for each seedling and soil nitrogen and phosphorus to examine the relationship between traits and abiotic conditions using a novel multivariate regression analysis approach. We found that above‐ and belowground traits segregated into independent functional axes and that the collaboration axis merged with the belowground resource‐acquisition axis. We found limited associations between abiotic factors and traits. Our findings suggest that within species, there might be additional constraints to adjust to soil conditions and therefore impact response to environmental change.

Plant functional traits offer ecologists quantifiable characteristics that may be used to determine the underlying mechanisms and drivers of processes at scales ranging from individual plants to entire ecosystems. While research on belowground functional traits has increased in recent years, most of this work has not fully considered the traits of mycorrhizal fungi, key symbionts responsible for much nutrient uptake and soil exploration in trees. We argue that, because of the important role of mycorrhizae in resource uptake, the measurement of belowground plant traits without the inclusion of mycorrhizal fungal traits potentially misses key mechanistic factors affecting plant performance, which has implications across ecological scales. In doing so, we provide a synopsis of current and past work on plant root traits and mycorrhizal fungal traits. Finally, we suggest potential key fungal traits to be measured and possible methods for measurement as ways to address the current gaps in our knowledge.

The capacity of forests to recover after disturbance, i.e., their resilience, determines their ability to persist and function over time. Many variables, natural and managerial, affect forest resilience. Thus, understanding their effects is critical for the development of sound forest conservation and management strategies, especially in the context of ongoing global environmental changes. We conducted a representative review, meta-analysis, of the forest literature in this topic (search terms \"forest AND resilience\"). We aimed to identify natural conditions that promote or jeopardize resilience, assess the efficacy of post-disturbance management practices on forest recovery, and evaluate forest resilience under current environmental changes. We surveyed more than 2,500 articles and selected the 156 studies (724 observations) that compared and quantified forest recovery after disturbance under different contexts. Context of recovery included: resource gradients (moisture and fertility), post-disturbance biomass reduction treatments, species richness gradients, incidence of a second disturbance, and disturbance severity. Metrics of recovery varied from individual tree growth and reproduction, to population abundance, to species richness and cover. Analyses show management practices only favored recovery through increased reproduction (seed production) and abundance of recruitment stages. Higher moisture conditions favored recovery, particularly in dry temperate regions; and in boreal forests, this positive effect increased with regional humidity. Biomass reduction treatments were only effective in increasing resilience after a drought. Early recruiting plant stages benefited from increased severity, while disturbance severity was associated with lower recovery of remaining adult trees. This quantitative review provides insight into the natural conditions and management practices under which forest resilience is enhanced and highlights conditions that could jeopardize future resilience. We also identified important knowledge gaps, such as the role of diversity in determining forest resilience and the lack of data in many regions.