Globally, functional traits are weak predictors of juvenile tree growth, and we do not know why

By C. E. T. Paine, L. Amissah, H. Auge, C. Baraloto, Martin Baruffol, N. Bourland, Helge Bruelheide, K. Daïnou, R. C. Gouvenain, J. Doucet and 25 more. 2015

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On the link between functional traits and growth rate: meta‐analysis shows effects change with plant size, as predicted (2016, background): “It has been widely expected that species with low tissue construction cost will typically have fast growth rates, at least in favourable physical environments (e.g. Muller-Landau 2004; Poorter et al. 2008; Chave et al. 2009; Larjavaara & Muller-Landau 2010; Iida et al. 2012; Paine et al. 2015).”
Ontogenetic shifts in plant ecological strategies (2018, background): “Despite the recent progress in trait‐based plant ecology, plant regeneration traits remain poorly understood (Larson & Funk, 2016), and this limits our knowledge of the assembly of natural and managed communities (Grubb, 1977; Paine et al., 2015).”
Conservative species drive biomass productivity in tropical dry forests (2016, background): “Our results suggest that the lack of globally consistent effects of functional traits on forest productivity (cf. Paine et al. 2015) is caused by different traits becoming important in different environments (Lohbeck et al. 2013).”