Data from: A global synthesis of how plants respond to climate warming from traits to fitness

Despite intensive research, our understanding of how plants respond to
warming by coordinating their full arsenal of traits to adjust fitness is
lacking. To fill this gap, we applied a trait-based framework with three
clusters (two functional clusters: “carbon-fixation rate” and
“carbon-fixation area”; a third cluster: “total carbon fixation”) to a
global dataset compiled from 572 studies of warming experiments with 677
species and a comprehensive list of traits and fitness components. The
pairwise correlation analysis complemented with SEM and PCA showed that
plants increased biomass (the core variable in the third cluster) under
warming by coordinating satellite traits in two functional clusters to
adjust their core traits, net photosynthesis rate, and total leaf area,
respectively. In particular, the trait coordination was characterized by
the maintenance of net photosynthesis rate and the increase of total leaf
area, which was robust across ecological contexts although warming
responses of the variables per se displayed context-dependences. Moreover,
the trade-offs between biomass and reproduction (itself bearing mass vs.
number trade-offs) in their warming responses scaled the coordination to
enhance fitness except in the contexts where reproduction was reduced.
These findings could help explain and predict plant form and function in a
warming world.