Data from: Aridity drives coordinated trait shifts but not decreased trait variance across the geographic range of eight Australian trees

Large intraspecific functional trait variation strongly impacts many
aspects of communities and ecosystems, and is the medium upon which
evolution works. Yet intraspecific trait variation is inconsistent and
hard to predict across traits, species, and locations. We measured
within-species variation in leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf dry matter
content (LDMC), branch wood density (WD), and allocation to stem area vs.
leaf area in branches (branch Huber value, HV) across the aridity range of
seven Australian eucalypts and a co-occuring Acacia species to explore how
traits and their variances change with aridity. Within-species, we found
consistent increases in LMA, LDMC and WD, and HV with increasing aridity,
resulting in consistent trait coordination across leaves and branches.
However, this coordination only emerged across sites with large climate
differences.  Unlike trait means, patterns of trait variance with
aridity were mixed across populations and species. Only LDMC showed
constrained trait variation in more xeric species and drier populations
that could indicate limits to plasticity or heritable trait variation. Our
results highlight that climate can drive consistent within-species trait
patterns, but that these patterns might often be obscured by the complex
nature of morphological traits, sampling incomplete species ranges, or
sampling confounded stress gradients.