中亚热带地带性石灰岩森林植被是一种特殊的森林生态系统，顶级群落为常绿落叶阔叶混交林，由于其生态环境特殊，存在着特有生物多样性和生态现象；同时，植物对环境变化敏感，因而可能存在特殊的适应环境方式。植物功能性状反映植物对环境变化的响应，是指示环境改变的有效工具。本项目以中亚热带石灰岩常绿落叶阔叶混交林为研究对象，通过个体水平上功能性状测定、物种水平系统发育树构建和不同尺度环境因子取样，研究中亚热带石灰岩常绿落叶阔叶混交林植物功能性状在种内、种间和群落水平的性状分异规律，探讨其随个体大小、空间尺度和环境异质性的变化规律，揭示环境和系统发育对功能性状分异特征的相对影响；然后排除系统发育因素，探索环境因子对功能性状的影响规律，阐明中亚热带石灰岩常绿落叶阔叶混交林对环境变化的响应机制。项目成果有助于掌握石灰岩森林植物对环境的适应规律，为岩溶石山植被恢复选择适合树种和构建稳定的群落结构提供理论依据。

The mid-subtropical zonal limestone forest vegetation is one kind of special forest ecosystems, and its climax community is a mid-subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest. This vegetation type has a unique biodiversity and special environment and trees in it are sensitive to changing environment, which may be a unique ways adjusting to environment. Besides, functional traits play main role in trees reponse to changing environment, therefore, are considered as the effective tool to indicate changing environment. In this project, major mid-subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forests will be selected at different areas (North-east, North, North-west and central) of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region with environmental gradients (e.g. precipitation, temperature and soil factors). We will measture key functional traits of each individual trees, establish species level phylogenetic tree and sample different scales environmental factors. On this basis, variations of plant functional traits will be analyzed across different scales organizational levels (e.g. intraspecies, interspecies and community level), spatial and heterogeneous environmental conditions using a method of hierarchical variance partition in the mid-subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest. And then, we will performed a general linear mixed model to test how the phylogeny and environments on variation in functional traits in it. More, we will analyze how environments at different scales impacted on funcational traits by removing phyloggenetic effects using a PIC (phylogenetically independent contrasts) method. Meanwhile, we will examine the impacts of different envionments on functional traits using a partial Mantel test, and assess the mechanism of trees response to changing environment in it. This study is able to contribute to grasp the rules for limestone forest plants to adapt environment and provide sound theoretical foundation to select the appropriate target tree species for afforestation in karst stone mountains.