Data from: Trait correlation network analysis identifies biomass allocation traits and stem specific length as hub traits in herbaceous perennial plants

Correlations among plant traits often reflect important trade‐offs or
allometric relationships in biological functions like carbon gain,
support, water uptake, and reproduction that are associated with different
plant organs. Whether trait correlations can be aggregated to “spectra” or
“leading dimensions,” whether these dimensions are consistent across plant
organs, spatial scale, and growth forms are still open questions. To
illustrate the current state of knowledge, we constructed a network of
published trait correlations associated with the “leaf economics
spectrum,” “biomass allocation dimension,” “seed dimension,” and carbon
and nitrogen concentrations. This literature‐based network was compared to
a network based on a dataset of 23 traits from 2,530 individuals of 126
plant species from 381 plots in Northwest Europe. The observed network
comprised more significant correlations than the literature‐based network.
Network centrality measures showed that size traits such as the mass of
leaf, stem, below‐ground, and reproductive tissues and plant height were
the most central traits in the network, confirming the importance of
allometric relationships in herbaceous plants. Stem mass and stem‐specific
length were “hub” traits correlated with most traits. Environmental
selection of hub traits may affect the whole phenotype. In contrast to the
literature‐based network, SLA and leaf N were of minor importance. Based
on cluster analysis and subsequent PCAs of the resulting trait clusters,
we found a “size” module, a “seed” module, two modules representing C and
N concentrations in plant organs, and a “partitioning” module representing
organ mass fractions. A module representing the plant economics spectrum
did not emerge. Synthesis. Although we found support for several trait
dimensions, the observed trait network deviated significantly from current
knowledge, suggesting that previous studies have overlooked trait
coordination at the whole‐plant level. Furthermore, network analysis
suggests that stem traits have a stronger regulatory role in herbaceous
plants than leaf traits.