Appendix 1

Plant trait	Preferred unit	Range of values	Recommended no. of replicates
			Minimum	Preferred	CV Range (%)
2 Whole-plant traits
2.1 Life history	Categorical	–	3	5	–
2.2 Life form	Categorical	–	3	5	–
2.3 Growth form	Categorical	–	3	5	–
2.4 Plant height	m	< 0.01–140	10	25	17–36
2.5 Clonality	Categorical	–	5	10	–
2.6 Spinescence			5	10	–
Spine length	mm	0.5–300
Spine width	mm	0.5–30
Spine length: leaf length	Unitless	0–30
2.7 Branching architecture	No. of ramifications per branch	0 – > 100	5	10	–
2.8 Leaf to sapwood area	Unitless	100–103	5	10	–
2.9 Root-mass fraction	Unitless	0.15–0.40 (for seedlings, down to 0.10)	5	10	–
2.10 Salt-tolerance traits			5	10
Selective root cation uptake	Unitless	–	10		–
Salt excretion and compartmentalisation	Categorical	–	5		–
2.11 Relative growth rate	mg g-1 day-1	2–300	10	20
2.12 Shoot flammability	Unitless	0 – ~3	5	10
2.13 Water-flux traits			10	20
Gap fraction	Unitless	0–1
Stem flow	%	0–50
Water retention on plant surface	g m-2	0–500
Leaf wettability	degrees (contact angle)	0–180
Droplet retention ability	degrees (slope angle)	0–90
3  Leaf traits
3.1  Specific leaf area	m2 kg-1 (mm2 mg-1)A	< 1–300	5, 5	10, 4	8–16
3.2 Area of a leaf	mm2	1 – > 206	5, 5	10, 4	17–36
3.3 Leaf dry-matter content	mg g-1	50–700	5, 5	10, 4	4–10
3.4 Leaf thickness	mm	< 0.1–5B	5	10
3.5 pH of green leaves or leaf litter	Unitless	3.5–6.5	5, 5	10, 4	1–6
3.6 Leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations
Leaf nitrogen concentration	mg g-1	5–70	5, 5	10, 4	8–19
Leaf phosphorus concentration	mg g-1	0.2–5	5, 5	10, 4	10–28
3.7 Physical strength of leaves			5, 5	10, 4	14–29
Force to tear	N mm-1	0.17–40
Work to shear	J m-1	0.02–0.5
Force to punch	N mm-1	0.03–1.6
3.8 Leaf lifespan and duration of green foliage
Leaf lifespan	Month	0.5–200	5, 40	10, 160	11–39
Duration of green foliage	Month	1–12	5	10	–
3.9 Vein density	Mm mm-2	0.5–25	5	10
3.10 Light-saturated photosynthetic rate	µmol m–2 s–1	2–30	5	10
3.11 Leaf dark respiration	µmol m–2 s–1	0.4–4	5	10
3.12 Photosynthetic pathway	Categorical	–	3	3	–
3.13 C-isotope composition	‰	–35 – –10	5	10
3.14 Electrolyte leakage	%	2–100	5, 5	10, 4	9–26
3.15 Leaf water potential	MPa	–7 —> 0	5, 5	5, 10	11–33
3.16 Leaf palatability	% Leaf area consumed	0–100	10	20
3.17 Litter decomposabilityC	% Mass loss	0–100	10	20	7–14
4 Stem traits
4.1 Stem-specific density	mg mm–3 (kg l–1)A	0.1–1.3	5	10	5–9
4.2 Twig dry-matter content	mg g-1	150–850	5	10	2–8
4.3 Bark thickness	mm	0.1 – > 30	5	10
4.4 Xylem conductivity			5	10	21–63
Stem-specific xylem hydraulic conductivity (KS)	kgm–1 s–1 MPa–1	1 (gymnosperms) to 200 (tropical lianas)
Leaf-area-specific xylem hydraulic conductivity (KL)	kgm–1 s–1 MPa–1	6 X 10-5 (gymnosperms) to 1 X 10-2 (tropical lianas)
4.5 Vulnerability to embolism (y50)	MPa	–0.25–14	5	10	20–45
5 Below-ground traits
5.1 Specific root length	m g-1	3–350	5, 10	10, 10	15–24
5.2 Root-system morphology			5	10
Depth	m	0.05–70
Lateral extent	m	0.05–40
Density of exploration	mm mm–3	10-4–1
5.3 Nutrient uptake strategy	Categorical	–	5	10	–
6 Regenerative traits 6.1 Dispersal syndrome	Categorical	–	3	6	–
6.2 Dispersule size and shape
Size (mass)	mg (g)A		5	10
Shape	Unitless	0–1	3	6	–
6.3 Dispersal potential	Dispersules	–	10	20	–
6.4  Seed mass	mg	10-3–107	5	10	14–27
6.5  Seedling morphology	Categorical	–	3	6	–
6.6  Resprouting capacity	Unitless	0–100	5	10	–