Data from: The unfolding of plant growth form-defence syndromes along elevation gradients

Understanding the functional economics that drives plant investment of resources requires investigating the interface between plant phenotypes and the variation in ecological conditions. While allocation to defence represents a large portion of the carbon budget, this axis is usually neglected in the study of plant economic spectrum. Using a novel geometrical approach, we analysed the co‐variation in a comprehensive set of functional traits related to plant growth strategies, as well as chemical defences against herbivores on all 15 Cardamine species present in the Swiss Alps. By extracting geometrical information of the functional space, we observed clustering of plants into three main syndromes. Those different strategies of growth form and defence were also distributed within distinct elevational bands demonstrating an association between the functional space and the ecological conditions. We conclude that plant strategies converge into clear syndromes that trade off abiotic tolerance, growth and defence within each elevation zone.要理解驱动植物资源投资的功能经济逻辑，需探究植物表型与生态条件变异之间的交互界面。尽管防御资源分配占据了植物碳预算的较大份额，但这一研究维度在植物功能经济谱（plant economic spectrum）的相关研究中常被忽略。本研究采用新颖的几何分析方法，针对瑞士阿尔卑斯山区分布的全部15种碎米荠属（Cardamine）植物，分析了与植物生长策略相关的成套功能性状，以及针对植食动物的化学防御性状之间的协同变异模式。通过提取功能空间的几何信息，我们发现受试植物可聚为三大主要策略组合。这些不同生长型与防御策略的组合，分别分布于不同的海拔梯度带中，由此证实功能空间与生态条件之间存在明确关联。本研究最终得出结论：在每个海拔区域内，植物生存策略会收敛为清晰的策略组合，三者在非生物胁迫耐受性、生长与防御之间形成权衡关系。