功能性状通常在不考虑环境背景的情况下被用来预测植物动态.然而,前人的研究发现性状对植物动态有较弱的预测能力.本文假设加入环境背景而不仅仅关注性状能够提高对性状-植物动态关系的理解.本研究基于一个9 ha温带老龄林动态监测样地,利用广义线性混合效应模型分析功能性状(叶、茎、种子和整个个体水平)、环境梯度(土壤养分、水分和海拔)以及两者的交互效应对14133个幼树、3289个成年树存活动态的影响.本文发现环境因子、邻体拥挤度和性状主效应能够影响植物存活.然而,后两者的影响在幼树和成年树间存在差异.性状-环境交互效应影响植物存活,即资源保守的性状在相对严酷的环境下提高植物存活而在相对温和的环境下降低植物存活.海拔梯度是本样地调节植物存活最重要的环境因子.我们的研究结果支持功能性状对局域尺度植物存活的影响依赖于环境背景的假设.该结果也暗示拥有有限性状变异的单一物种不能占据所有的环境梯度,从而提高物种多样性.“,”Aims Functional traits are usually used to predict plant demographic rates without considering environmental contexts.However,previous studies have consistently found that traits have low explanatory power for plant demographic rates.We hypothesized that accounting for environmental contexts instead of focusing on traits alone could improve our understanding of how traits influence plant demographic rates.Methods We used generalized linear mixed-effect models to analyse the effects of functional traits(related to leaf,stem,seed and whole plant),environmental gradients(soil nutrients,water and elevation)and their interactions on the survival dynamics of 14 133 saplings and 3289 adults in a 9-ha old-growth temperate forest plot.Important Findings We found that environmental variables,neighbour crowding and traits alone(i.e.main effects)influenced plant survival.However,the effects of the latter two variables varied between saplings and adults.The trait-environment interactions influenced plant survival,such that resource conservative traits increased plant survival under harsh conditions but decreased survival under mild conditions.The elevational gradient was the most important environmental factor driving these effects in our plot.Our results support the hypothesis that functional traits influence plant survival depending on environmental contexts in local communities.These results also imply that one species with limited trait variation cannot occupy all environments,which can promote species diversity.