Data from: Drivers of plant traits that allow survival in wetlands

1. Plants have developed a suite of traits to survive the anaerobic and anoxic soil conditions in wetlands. Previous studies on wetland plant adaptive traits have focused mainly on physiological aspects under experimental conditions, or compared the trait expression of the local species pool. Thus, a comprehensive analysis of potential factors driving wetland plant adaptive traits under natural environmental conditions is still missing. 2. In this study, we analysed three important wetland adaptive traits, i.e. root porosity, root/shoot ratio and underwater photosynthetic rate, to explore driving factors using a newly compiled dataset of wetland plants. Based on 21 studies at 38 sites across different biomes, we found that root porosity was affected by an interaction of temperature and hydrological regime; root:shoot ratio was affected by temperature, precipitation and habitat type; and underwater photosynthetic rate was affected by precipitation and life form. This suggests that a variety of driving mechanisms affect the expression of different adaptive traits. 3. The quantitative relationships we observed between the adaptive traits and their driving factors will be a useful reference for future global methane and denitrification modelling studies. Our results also stress that besides the traditionally emphasized hydrological driving factors, other factors at several spatial scales should also be taken into consideration in the context of future functional wetland ecology.1. 湿地植物演化出一系列适应性性状，以在湿地的厌氧与缺氧土壤环境中存活。过往针对湿地植物适应性性状的研究，多聚焦于实验条件下的生理层面，或是对比本地物种类群的性状表达模式。因此，目前仍缺乏针对自然环境下驱动湿地植物适应性性状的潜在因素的系统性分析。 2. 本研究依托新构建的湿地植物数据集，选取根孔隙度（root porosity）、根冠比（root/shoot ratio）与水下光合速率（underwater photosynthetic rate）这三类关键湿地适应性性状，探究其驱动因子。本研究整合了不同生物群区（biomes）38个样地的21项相关研究数据，结果显示：根孔隙度受温度与水文状况的交互作用影响；根冠比受温度、降水与生境类型共同调控；水下光合速率则受降水与植物生活型的影响。这表明不同的驱动机制共同调控着各类适应性性状的表达模式。 3. 本研究观测到的适应性性状与其驱动因子间的定量关系，可为未来全球甲烷（methane）与反硝化（denitrification）模拟研究提供重要参考。此外，本研究结果还强调：在未来湿地功能生态学的研究框架中，除了传统上备受关注的水文驱动因子外，还需纳入多空间尺度下的其他影响因素。