Global trait-environment relationships extend to the tidal-dominated mangrove biome

Plant functional traits, the key to driving carbon cycling and the energy balance of ecosystems, are widely demonstrated associated with environments across a wide range of biomes. However, it is unknown whether global trait-environmental relationships extend to climatic extremes. We tested if these relationships hold in the environmental extremes of forest on Earth using a compiled database of mangrove plant leaf traits from 338 individuals across 58 species, 71 sites worldwide. We show that mangroves were clustered at the conservative end along the leaf economic spectrum axis of global vascular plants. Mangrove leaf traits were significantly ( p < 0.05) correlated with salinity, tidal current velocity and mean temperature diurnal range (Bio2), and were seen to undergo changes in response to future environmental changes. Trait-environmental relationships are thus generalizable to the tidal-dominated forest, informing prediction of mangrove ecosystem function shifts in a changing world.