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.

Smallholder agricultural systems in tropical and subtropical regions are threatened by climate change. This systematic review of 218 peer-reviewed studies (2000–2024) synthesizes evidence on agroforestry’s role as a climate-smart economic strategy across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Using a PRISMA-guided approach, we evaluated carbon sequestration pathways, biophysical adaptation benefits, and socioeconomic outcomes. Findings indicate that agroforestry systems can sequester 0.5–5 Mg C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ in biomass and soils. The results show that agroforestry has the potential to improve above- and below-ground carbon stocks, moderate microclimates, decrease erosion and improve functional biodiversity. The results, however, differ greatly depending on the type of system, ecology and practice. The socioeconomic advantages can be diversification of income and stability of the yield, and adoption is limited due to barriers related to the economy, lack of security in tenure, information asymmetry, and insufficient policy encouragement. We find that agroforestry is a multifunctional and climate resistant land-use approach, but the potential that agroforestry has cannot be fulfilled without context-specific policies, better extension services and inclusive carbon financing schemes.

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.

Leaf functional traits play a decisive role in harnessing plant performance under contrasting light environments. The functionality of leaf functional traits is largely governed by light with variation induced by abiotic and plant community moderators- at global scale this mechanistic relationship of leaf functional traits with light and moderators is still poorly understood. To quantify this relationship globally, we aim to verify the effects of change in the light environment 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 different regions induce variations in leaf functional traits in contrasting light environments. we conducted a meta-analysis of worldwide experimental data including 581 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 and species with evergreen leaves while leaf physiological functional traits showed more significant sensitivity to moderate to high temperature and deciduous leaf habit along with regional variations due to integrating effects of mean annual precipitation (MAP) and mean annual temperature (MAT). However, negligible support was found for leaf dry matter content.