Sensitivity of community-level trait–environment relationships to data representativeness: A test for functional biogeography

Aim: The characterization of trait–environment relationships over broad-scale gradients is a critical goal for ecology and biogeography. This implies the merging of plot and trait databases to assess community-level trait-based statistics. Potential shortcomings and limitations of this approach are that: (i) species traits are not measured where the community is sampled and (ii) the availability of trait data varies considerably across species and plots. Here we address the effect of trait data representativeness [the sampling effort per species and per plot] on the accuracy of (i) species-level and (ii) community-level trait estimates and (iii) the consequences for the shape and strength of trait–environment relationships across communities. Innovation: We combined information existing in databases of vegetation plots and plant traits to estimate community-weighted means [CWMs] of four key traits [specific leaf area, plant height, seed mass and leaf nitrogen content per dry mass] in permanent grasslands at a country-wide