Fig. 2

Major areas of tropical tree ecology are studied by linking functional traits, demography, and the environment. All three of these contexts and their interactions must be considered in analyses to adequately explain differential performance across environments, identify the axes of function that clearly predict this performance, and explain the vast diversity of form and function of trees seen in the tropics. We argue that the greatest advances in trait-based studies of tropical forests in the future will come through an explicit consideration of how organismal-level function interacts with abiotic and biotic contexts to drive differential tree demography and ultimately forest dynamics. Without an explicit consideration of these contexts and richer assays of tree function via anatomical and physiological traits and functional genes, little additional progress may be made