Data from: The role of habitat filtering in the leaf economics spectrum and plant susceptibility to pathogen infection

1. The Leaf Economics Spectrum (LES) describes global covariation in the traits of plant leaves. The LES is thought to arise from biophysical constraints and habitat filtering (ecological selection against unfit trait combinations along environmental gradients). However, the role of habitat filtering in generating the LES has not been tested experimentally. 2. If the process of habitat filtering plays a role in generating the LES, the LES could weaken in communities that have yet to be filtered by the current environment, for example after abiotic environmental change. LES traits are commonly used to predict community and ecosystem processes, and if the LES weakens in unfiltered communities, LES-based models may no longer apply. 3. In the greenhouse, we experimentally simulated three stages of habitat filtering in response to abiotic change: from unfiltered, to semi-filtered, to completely filtered communities. In each stage, we quantified the strength of the LES and assessed the accuracy of trait-based models of an important ecological process, pathogen infection. 4. The strength of the LES increased with the completeness of habitat filtering, as did the accuracy of trait-based models of plant susceptibility to pathogen infection. 5. Synthesis. Our results suggest that habitat filtering plays a fundamental role in strengthening the trait correlations of the LES, and that trait-based models may be less accurate when communities have not been filtered by the current environment, for example, following rapid environmental change.

1. 叶片经济谱（Leaf Economics Spectrum, LES）描述了植物叶片性状的全球协同变异。学界普遍认为，叶片经济谱的形成源于生物物理约束与生境过滤——即沿环境梯度对不适配性状组合实施的生态选择。然而，生境过滤在塑造叶片经济谱过程中所发挥的作用尚未得到实验验证。
2. 若生境过滤过程确实参与塑造叶片经济谱，那么在尚未经当前环境完成过滤的群落中，叶片经济谱的协同性可能会减弱，例如在经历非生物环境变化之后。叶片经济谱性状常被用于预测群落与生态系统过程，若未经过滤的群落中叶片经济谱的协同性减弱，那么基于叶片经济谱的模型可能不再适用。
3. 本研究在人工温室中，针对非生物环境变化，实验模拟了生境过滤的三个阶段：从未过滤、半过滤至完全过滤的群落。在每个阶段，我们均量化了叶片经济谱的强度，并评估了针对一项重要生态过程——病原菌侵染——的基于性状的模型的预测准确性。
4. 叶片经济谱的强度随生境过滤程度的提升而增强，植物对病原菌侵染的易感性相关基于性状的模型的预测准确性同样随过滤程度提升而增强。
5. 综合分析。本研究结果表明，生境过滤在强化叶片经济谱的性状相关性方面发挥着基础性作用；而当群落尚未经当前环境过滤时（例如在快速环境变化之后），基于性状的模型的预测准确性可能会有所下降。