Data for "Functional trait distributions of tree communities predict forest ecosystem functioning"

Trait-based approaches assume that variation in ecosystem functioning can be predicted by shifts in the functional trait distribution of plant communities. Forest ecosystems provide a prominent role in global carbon cycle and mitigation of climate change. However, it remains unclear to what extent particular forest ecosystem functions depend on the trait distributions of tree communities. Here, we leveraged a broad scale data to explore the effect of tree height distributions (mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis) on forest aboveground carbon storage. We found strong associations between these trait moments and aboveground carbon storage. The functional identity metric (mean) exhibited higher intensity compared with functional diversity metrics (variance, skewness and kurtosis). The relative effects of each moment on aboveground carbon storage varied across forest successional stage. Overall, our study highlights the important role of trait distributions in predicting forest ecosystem functioning, and contributes to a better understanding of certain mechanisms underlying trait-ecosystem functioning relationships.