Data from: Contrasting patterns of leaf trait variation among and within species during tropical dry forest succession in Costa Rica

A coordinated response to environmental drivers amongst individual
functional traits is central to the plant strategy concept. However,
whether the trait co-ordination observed at the global scale occurs at
other ecological scales (especially within species) remains an open
question. Here, for sapling communities of two tropical dry forest types
in Costa Rica, we show large differences amongst traits in the relative
contribution of species turnover and intraspecific variation to their
directional changes in response to environmental changes along a
successional gradient. We studied the response of functional traits
associated with the leaf economics spectrum and drought tolerance using
intensive sampling to analyse inter- and intra-specific responses to
environmental changes and ontogeny. Although the overall functional
composition of the sapling communities changed during succession more
through species turnover than through intraspecific trait variation, their
relative contributions differed greatly amongst traits. For instance,
community mean specific leaf area changed mostly due to intraspecific
variation. Traits of the leaf economics spectrum showed decoupled
responses to environmental drivers and ontogeny. These findings emphasise
how divergent ecological mechanisms combine to cause great differences in
changes of individual functional traits over environmental gradients and
ecological scales.