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Given distinct competitive mechanisms for light versus soil resources, above- and below-ground ITV is likely to exhibit differential responses to species richness. However, empirical research has focused predominantly on above-ground traits, leaving a critical gap in understanding simultaneous above- and below-ground responses.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study addresses these gaps through a 3-year controlled seedling experiment in Tiantong, Zhejiang, China, constructing experimental communities across species richness gradients (one, two, four and eight species) and systematically measuring 11 key above- and below-ground functional traits.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Key Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Our results reveal an above-ground\u2013below-ground decoupling pattern, in which plants responded to increasing species richness through greater ITV in traits associated with the above-ground leaf-economics axis, but exhibited more complex below-ground responses. Above-ground ITV of mean leaf area and specific leaf area increased significantly with richness, supporting the competitive hierarchy hypothesis. In contrast, ITV of root diameter decreased significantly with richness, indicating trait-specific rather than general support for the niche packing hypothesis. Species richness also drove directional shifts in mean trait values, with above-ground traits shifting towards greater resource acquisition and below-ground traits shifting towards thicker-root resource-use strategies. This decoupling indicates that plants simultaneously use divergent strategies in different organ dimensions rather than uniform responses.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The study reconciles long-standing theoretical conflicts by demonstrating that both competitive hierarchy and niche packing operate concurrently but in distinct plant compartments. These findings emphasize the necessity of integrated above- and below-ground perspectives in explaining species coexistence in diverse communities.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1093\/aob\/mcag246","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,4]],"date-time":"2026-08-04T11:44:48Z","timestamp":1785843888000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Decoupling of above- and below-ground intraspecific trait variation along richness gradients in plants"],"prefix":"10.1093","author":[{"given":"Jing","family":"Yang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University , Shanghai 200241 ,","place":["China"]},{"name":"Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu 50409 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