PNNL

Abstract

Plant traits reflect their evolutionary history and influence physiological processes (Reich, 2014). For example, the embolism risk taken by plants, called the embolism safety margin, is a good predictor of stomatal conductance, and hence photosynthesis (Skelton et al., 2015). Trait-science has grown dramatically in the last decade as we have found niversal patterns governing the carbon and nutrient economies of plants (Bloom et al., 1985). Perhaps the greatest value of studying plant functional traits is that they yield understanding of plant functional processes.