Beyond species means – the intraspecific contribution to global wood density variation

Abstract

Wood density is central for estimating vegetation carbon storage and a plant functional trait of great ecological and evolutionary importance. However, the global extent of wood density variation is unclear, especially at the intraspecific level. We assembled the most comprehensive wood density collection to date, including 109 626 records from 16 829 plant species across woody life forms and biomes (GWDD v.2, available here: doi: 10.5281/zenodo.16919509). Using the GWDD v.2, we explored the sources of wood density variation within individuals, within species and across environmental gradients. Intraspecific variation accounted for c. 15% of overall wood density variation (SD = 0.068 g cm−3). Variance was 50% smaller in sapwood than heartwood, and 30% smaller in branchwood than trunkwood. Individuals in extreme environments (dry, hot and acidic soils) had higher wood density than conspecifics elsewhere (+0.02 g cm−3, c. 4% of the mean). Intraspecific environmental effects strongly tracked interspecific patterns (r = 0.83) but were 70–80% smaller and varied considerably among taxa. Individual plant wood density was difficult to predict (root mean square error > 0.08 g cm−3; single-measurement R2 = 0.59). We recommend (1) systematic sampling of multiple individuals and tissues for local applications, and (2) expanded taxonomic coverage combined with integrative models for robust estimates across ecological scales.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Fischer, F.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2325-9886 Chave, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7766-1347 Zanne, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6379-9452 Jucker, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0751-6312 Fajardo, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2202-6207 Fayolle, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6770-0031 de Lima, R.A.F. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1048-0138 Vieilledent, G. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1685-4997 Beeckman, H. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8954-6277 Hubau, W. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3795-4986 De Mil, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6207-9613 Wallenus, D. Aldana, A.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3439-6245 Alvarez‐Dávila, E. Alves, L.F. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8944-1851 Apgaua, D.M.G. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6303-6989 Arcanjo, F. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9107-6339 Bastin, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2602-7247 Bilous, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7589-4307 Birnbaum, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4830-5500 Blyshchyk, V. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5440-3142 Borah, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5241-4665 Boukili, V. Camarero, J.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2436-2922 Casas, L. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6327-9163 Cazzolla Gatti, R. Chambers, J.Q. Fabiano, E.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4126-5270 Choat, B. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9105-640X Conti, G. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5420-6843 Cornwell, W. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4080-4073 Dar, J.A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2018-8376 Das, A.K. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3858-3371 Dobler, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9188-6876 Dougabka, D. https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6523-5204 Edwards, D.P. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8562-3853 Evans, R. Falster, D. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9814-092X Fearnside, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3672-9082 Flores, O. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1416-0449 Fyllas, N. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5651-5578 Gérard, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5005-8636 Goodman, R.C. https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2247-7102 Guibal, D. Henao‐Diaz, L.F. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1975-4908 Hervé, V. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3495-561X Hietz, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0458-6593 Homeier, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5676-3267 Ibanez, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3192-1721 Ilic, J. Jansen, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4476-5334 Kalita, R.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1026-5806 Kenzo, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4856-7204 Kindermann, L. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8126-2576 Kothandaraman, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7940-7705 Kotowska, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2283-5979 Kubota, Y. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5723-4962 Langbour, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6037-255X Lawson, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7983-4443 de Lima, A.L.A. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4504-5774 Link, R.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0588-3757 Linstädter, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0038-9557 López, R. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3553-9148 Macinnis‐Ng, C. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3935-9814 Magnago, L.F.S. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6335-754X Martin, A.R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7207-4004 Matheny, A.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9532-7131 McCarthy, J.K. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3060-1678 Miller, R.B. Nath, A.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6453-5595 Nelson, B.W. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0488-6895 Njana, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8845-8432 Nogueira, E.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6520-1941 Oliveira, A. Oliveira, R. Olson, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3715-4567 Onoda, Y. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6245-2342 Paul, K. Piotto, D. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6505-0098 Radtke, P. Razafindratsima, O. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1655-6647 Ramananantoandro, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5080-7118 Read, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4727-3482 Richardson, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4097-0381 de la Riva, E.G. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3393-8375 Rodríguez‐Reyes, O. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2976-0017 Rolim, S.G. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9962-8708 Rolo, V. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5854-9512 Rosell, J.A. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5741-8027 Salguero‐Gómez, R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6085-4433 Santini, N.S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8319-8862 Schuldt, B. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4738-5289 Schwendenmann, L. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2290-3003 Sellin, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0513-592X Staples, T. Stevenson, P.R. Sundarapandian, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7860-091X van der Sande, M.T. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6845-2308 Thibaut, B. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0070-940X Tng, D.Y.P. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5135-0922 Torezan, J.M.D. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7962-1499 Villanueva, B. Weiskittel, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2534-4478 Wells, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3555-5108 Wright, S.J. Zieminska, K. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7750-4758
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2026 The Author(s). New Phytologist © 2026 New Phytologist Foundation. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords:	aridity; biomass; functional trait; hierarchical modelling; intraspecific variation; wood density
Dates:	Submitted: 25 August 2025 Accepted: 2 December 2025 Published (online): 16 January 2026 Published: 16 January 2026
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) > Department of Animal and Plant Sciences (Sheffield)
Date Deposited:	27 Jan 2026 10:19
Last Modified:	27 Jan 2026 10:19
Status:	Published online
Publisher:	Wiley
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1111/nph.70860
Related URLs:	PubMed URL Dataset Dataset
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:236858

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Beyond species means – the intraspecific contribution to global wood density variation

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Beyond species means – the intraspecific contribution to global wood density variation

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