Leaf hydraulic and photosynthetic traits mediate forest-scale resource use efficiencies across the continental United States.

Across eight temperate U.S. forests, community-weighted mean leaf traits—maximum carboxylation velocity, maximum hydraulic conductance, and turgor loss point—are strongly linked to gross primary productivity and water-use efficiencies.

• Why it matters: Forest resilience to climate-driven water stress is uncertain, and it is unclear whether functional leaf traits can predict ecosystem processes at continental scale.
• What they did: The team combined leaf physiology, community composition, flux measurements, and modeling, scaling CWM trait values to predict gross primary productivity, light-use efficiency, WUE/iWUE, and their sensitivities to soil drought.
• The result: Multiple regressions and LM4.1 model parameterization with CWM traits support a causal role for functional traits alongside climate in shaping forest responses to soil moisture and drought sensitivity.

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