A phylogenic approach to comparative functional plant ecology

Functional plant ecology is subdiscipline of ecology which studies plant traits variation among species and along an environmental gradient as well as its ecological and evolutionary significance.Traits are core central concept for functional ecology which can let us understand and predict plant performance and ecosystem processes and functioning.Comparison is an approach and methodology for functional ecology research.Functional ecology has three basic components and approach:(1) constructing trait matrices(i.e.traits linked to evolutionary fitness and that determine the ability of a plant to survive,reproduce or disperse) through screening as the explanatory variables,(2) exploring empirical relationships among these traits across many species in an attempt to elucidate general trends,(3) determining the relationships between traits and environments.China has a great diversity of plants and diverse vegetation in highly heterogeneous environments and we have good understanding on China flora and vegetation,so to explore China′s floristic trait with phylogeny and distribution perspective(comparing among species in a genus or a family and comparing among species in a displacement distribution gradient) may produce further findings and new insight for functional ecology and plant ecology.