TYPE Original Research PUBLISHED 17 July 2023 DOI 10.3389/ffgc.2023.1198626 OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Uttam Kumar Sahoo, Mizoram University, India REVIEWED BY Rajiv Pandey, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), India Bhupendra Singh, VCSG Uttarakhand University, Ranichauri, India *CORRESPONDENCE Waseem Razzaq Khan khanwaseem@upm.edu.my RECEIVED 01 April 2023 ACCEPTED 17 May 2023 PUBLISHED 17 July 2023 CITATION Yaseen M, Khan WR, Bahadur S, Batool F, Khalid F, Ahmed U and Ashraf M (2023) Intra- and inter-specific responses of plant functional traits to environmental variables: implications for community ecology in the tropical monsoonal dwarf forest on Hainan Island. Front. For. Glob. Change 6:1198626. doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2023.1198626 COPYRIGHT © 2023 Yaseen, Khan, Bahadur, Batool, Khalid, Ahmed and Ashraf. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Intra- and inter-specific responses of plant functional traits to environmental variables: implications for community ecology in the tropical monsoonal dwarf forest on Hainan Island Muhammad Yaseen 1,2 , Waseem Razzaq Khan 3 *, Saraj Bahadur 1,2 , Farwa Batool 1,2 , Farhan Khalid 4 , Umair Ahmed 5 and Maria Ashraf 6,7 1 Wuzhishan National Long-Term Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Research Station, College of Forestry, Hainan University, Haikou, China, 2 Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresource, College of Forestry, Hainan University, Haikou, China, 3 Department of Forestry Science, Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia Kampus Bintulu Sarawak Jalan Nyabau, Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia, 4 Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan, 5 College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan, China, 6 Key Laboratory of Agroforestry Environmental Process and Ecological Regulation of Hainan Province, Hainan University, Haikou, China, 7 College of Ecology and Environment, Hainan University, Haikou, China In the context of tropical monsoonal dwarf forest restoration, it is well known that the interaction between soil properties and plant functional traits influences the dynamics and forest composition of plant communities. The main aim of this study was to determine the relationships and variations between the plant functional traits and environmental variables in tropical coastal secondary forests. However, it is undisputed whether trait variation is coordinated and whether there is a relationship between the community-weighted mean (CWM) traits and soil variables. TNNR conducted a ground survey to collect actual ground data on the biophysical characteristics of individual trees and shrubs, along with soil sample data. All soil samples and plant materials were collected at the end of June, in the 2020 growing season (July and August), in each quadrat with a 400-m 2 area. To gain insight into these questions, a total of 4 plant functional traits of 167 species and 5 soil nutrients from 128 soil samples were analyzed from 128 plots in a tropical evergreen monsoon forest on Hainan Island. Using SMA (standardized major axis), wood density (WD), and leaf thickness (LT), as well as specific leaf area (SLA) and relative leaf water content (RLWC), were significantly positively correlated. Using Pearson correlation analysis, leaf thickness (LT) was significantly positively correlated with soil organic matter (OM). Using principal component analysis (PCA), we also found that soil TN and OM were the strongest predictors for functional traits, i.e., WD and LT. Moreover, using path analysis, OM and TN have a major impact on plant CWM traits, e.g., SLA and RLWC. Our results show a significant relationship between functional traits and soil pH and soil nutrients in tropical coastal secondary forests. Our results highlight that plant traits can be used to predict specific soil nutrients and ecosystem functioning in tropical secondary forests, but we are concerned about how variation in the physical structure of plant affect ecosystem function in forest communities. This research can help us to better understand the restoration of habitats and green infrastructure design, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 01 frontiersin.org