Fig. 1: Relationships of community-weighted means of stomatal traits across 28 forests and 29 grasslands to the environment.

CWM community-weighted mean, SL stomatal length, SD stomatal density, PC1, PC2, and PC3 represent the first three axes of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for 30 environmental variables, respectively. a–c Relationships of CWMs of SL to PC1, PC2, and PC3, respectively. d–f Relationships of CWMs of SD to PC1, PC2, and PC3, respectively. Statistical analysis was performed using linear mixed-effects models, with vegetation type (forests vs. grasslands), environment, and their interaction as fixed effects, and plot nested within site as a random effect. The solid lines depict significant linear regressions and the dashed lines non-significant linear regressions, and the gray shading indicates 95% confidence intervals. We included the regression lines for both significant and non-significant relationships to allow for direct visual comparison of slopes and intercepts between the two groups. The p-value of < 0.05 signifies significant differences in the slopes and intercepts of the relationships of stomatal traits for forests and grasslands to the environment. For additional details, please refer to Tables S3, 4. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.