Subtropical forests, recognized for their intricate vertical canopy stratification, exhibit high resistance to extreme drought. However, the response of leaf phenology to drought in the species‐rich understory remains poorly understood. In this study, we constructed a digital camera system, amassing over 360,000 images through a 70% throughfall exclusion experiment, to explore the drought response of understory leaf phenology....

Earth system models are implementing soil phosphorus dynamic and plant functional traits to predict functional changes in global forests. However, the linkage between soil phosphorus and plant traits lacks empirical evidence, especially in mature forests. Here, we examined the soil phosphorus constraint on plant functional traits in a mature subtropical forest based on observations of 9943 individuals from 90 species in a 5‐ha...

The growth of terrestrial plants and the production of terrestrial ecosystems are highly dependent on the availability of nitrogen (N). During the past decades, the rate of global atmospheric N deposition has shown an increasing trend, greatly relieving N limitation on terrestrial plant growth. Thus, whether and how plant biomass will respond to increasing N deposition in the future is particularly important with regard to the...