It remains unclear how evolutionary and ecological processes have shaped the wide variety of plant life strategies, especially in highly diverse ecosystems like tropical forests. Some evidence suggests that species have diversified across a gradient of ecological strategies, with different plant tissues converging to optimize resource use across environmental gradients. Alternative hypotheses propose that species have diversified following independent selection on different tissues, resulting in a decoupling of trait syndromes across organs. To shed light on the subject, we assembled an unprecedented dataset combining 19 leaf, stem and root traits for 1467 tropical tree species inventoried across 71 0.1-ha plots spanning broad environmental gradients in French Guiana. Nearly 50% of the overall functional heterogeneity was expressed along four orthogonal dimensions, after accounting for phylogenetic dependences among species. The first dimension related to fine root functioning, while the second and third dimensions depicted two decoupled leaf economics spectra, and the fourth dimension encompassed a wood economics spectrum. Traits involved in orthogonal functional strategies, five leaf traits in particular but also trunk bark thickness, were consistently associated with a same gradient of soil texture and nutrient availability. Root traits did not show any significant association with edaphic variation, possibly because of the prevailing influence of other factors (mycorrhizal symbiosis, phylogenetic constraints). Our study emphasises the existence of multiple functional dimensions that allow tropical tree species to optimize their performance in a given environment, bringing new insights into the debate around the presence of a whole plant economic spectrum in tropical forest tree communities. It also emphasizes the key role that soil heterogeneity plays in shaping tree species assembly. The extent to which different organs are decoupled and respond to environmental gradients may also help to improve our predictions of species distribution changes in responses to habitat modification and environmental changes.

中文翻译：

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从 1467 种亚马逊树种的叶、茎和根性状中解析整株经济性

目前尚不清楚进化和生态过程如何塑造各种各样的植物生命策略，尤其是在热带森林等高度多样化的生态系统中。一些证据表明，物种在生态策略的梯度上已经多样化，不同的植物组织会聚在一起以优化跨环境梯度的资源利用。另一种假设认为，物种在对不同组织进行独立选择后发生了多样化，导致器官间的性状综合征脱钩。为了阐明这个主题，我们组装了一个前所未有的数据集，结合了 1467 种热带树种的 19 个叶、茎和根特征，这些树种在法属圭亚那跨越广泛环境梯度的 71 个 0.1 公顷地块中盘点。在考虑了物种之间的系统发育依赖性后，近 50% 的整体功能异质性沿四个正交维度表达。第一个维度与细根功能相关，而第二个和第三个维度描绘了两个分离的叶经济谱，第四个维度包含木材经济谱。正交功能策略中涉及的性状，特别是五个叶子性状，还有树干树皮厚度，始终与相同的土壤质地和养分有效性梯度相关。根性状与土壤变异没有任何显着关联，可能是因为其他因素（菌根共生、系统发育限制）的普遍影响。我们的研究强调了多种功能维度的存在，这些维度使热带树种能够在给定环境中优化其性能，为围绕热带森林树木群落中整个植物经济谱的辩论带来新的见解。它还强调了土壤异质性在塑造树种组装方面的关键作用。不同器官解耦和响应环境梯度的程度也可能有助于改善我们对栖息地改变和环境变化响应中物种分布变化的预测。它还强调了土壤异质性在塑造树种组装方面的关键作用。不同器官解耦和响应环境梯度的程度也可能有助于改善我们对栖息地改变和环境变化响应中物种分布变化的预测。它还强调了土壤异质性在塑造树种组装方面的关键作用。不同器官解耦和响应环境梯度的程度也可能有助于提高我们对物种分布变化的预测，以响应栖息地改变和环境变化。