The relationship between plants and their environment has always been a core issue in ecological research. This study about how plant architecture and leaf traits respond to environmental changes helps to more deeply understand the adaptive mechanisms of plants in diverse environments. Although there have been related studies, a systematic analysis on a China-wide scale is still lacking. To address this gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of 115 studies across China examining plant architectural and leaf trait responses to environmental changes. The dataset includes 849 observations across 11 ecological variables, such as the mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature, soil type, and elevation, and evaluates their effects on seven key plant traits. The results indicated that variations in the plant height, diameter at breast height (DBH), and root-to-shoot ratio are primarily influenced by the soil type and mean annual precipitation. In contrast, the soil type and mean annual sunshine duration mainly affected the specific leaf area (SLA), leaf area, leaf thickness, and leaf dry matter content. Moreover, while the magnitude of trait responses varies across precipitation, temperature, elevation, and soil property gradients, the impacts of environmental change are particularly pronounced under more extreme conditions. This study provides robust scientific evidence for understanding the effects of environmental change on plant growth across China and offers valuable insights into ecological conservation and the sustainable use of plant resources.

In October 2021, China established its first group of national parks, representing a milestone in enhancing the country’s nature reserve system and aligning with global trends in ecological conservation. This study aims to assess habitat quality changes and identify the driving factors in five national parks using multi-temporal land use data from 2000 to 2020. By integrating the land use transfer matrix with the InVEST model, we quantified habitat quality changes, while the geographical detector method was employed to analyze the key natural and socioeconomic drivers. Results showed that grassland and cultivated land were predominantly converted into forestland, leading to improvements in habitat quality in some parks. Specifically, Wuyishan National Park exhibited the highest and most stable habitat quality index, while Three-River-Source National Park experienced significant improvement (+34.10%). However, the Giant Panda, Northeast China Tiger and Leopard, and Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Parks experienced habitat degradation, with decreases of 15.15%, 14.50%, and 13.90%, respectively. Key drivers, such as NDVI, temperature, precipitation, elevation, and population density, were found to significantly influence habitat quality across the parks. This study highlights the ecological benefits of forestland restoration and the risks posed by the conversion of forest to cultivated or construction land, providing valuable insights for optimizing conservation strategies in China’s national parks.

Leaf functional traits play a decisive role in harnessing plant performance and the functionality of leaf functional traits is largely governed by change in light environments yet at global scale this mechanistic relationship of leaf functional traits with light under diverse plant communities and abiotic conditions is still poorly understood due to conflicting findings across regions. To quantify this relationship globally, we aimed to verify the effects of contrasting light environments on leaf functional traits worldwide in (I) different plant community factors; plant functional group, leaf form and leaf habit (II) different abiotic variables, that is, mean annual precipitation (MAP), mean annual temperature (MAT), elevation and climate; and (III) verify whether leaf functional traits exhibit variations in different regions across the globe in contrasting light environments. we conducted a meta-analysis of worldwide experimental data from 1980–2024 including 536 pairwise comparisons to evaluate the influence of different light environments on leaf functional traits both morphological such as specific leaf area, stomatal density, leaf mass area and physiological leaf traits such as net photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll content, leaf dry matter content. Our results showed that leaf morphological traits significantly responded to contrasting light environments and these effects were more pronounced in areas with moderate climatic conditions (MAT 5>15 °C and >500 mm of MAP) and species with evergreen leaves. Leaf physiological functional traits showed more significant sensitivity to moderate to high temperature (MAT >15 °C) and deciduous leaf habit along with regional variations due to integrating effects of MAP and MAT. However, negligible support was found for leaf dry matter content. Our work provides trait-level plastic responses along natural light gradient, modulated by climate and plant community factors and provide an insight into leaf functional traits adaptive strategies across light gradient worldwide.