@joe-wan.bsky.social thank you for including me in this project. I enjoyed the afternoons at @ethz.ch were we developed our conceptual thinking and discussed the conceptual framework. Congratulations with this nice manuscript!

We show that when applying this framework to data, relationships between niche, fitness, and function also predict community multifunctionality. By bringing coexistence theory & functional ecology together, functional coexistence theory advances both theoretical ecology and its applied relevance.

Therefore, climate change driven global temperature rise may have a strong effect on trait differences between dominant and rare tree species and may lead to changes in species abundances and therefore strong community reassembly.

The difference between traits of dominant and rare species is more strongly driven by temperature compared to water availability, as temperature might affect a larger number of traits.

We found three consistent trait differences between locally dominant and rare species across all biomes; dominant species are taller, have softer wood and higher loading on the multivariate stem strategy axis (related to narrow tracheids and thick bark).

In the early phase of succession it is determined if succession is arrested or if forest recovers quickly. Our study shows that mainly soil characteristics and connectivity of forest in the landscape affects growth form replacement in early succession. Stay tuned for the final results!