摘要：Patterns of species distribution can be explained by functional traits of the dominant species and a few key environmental parameters which act as filters on the available pool of species. We performed principal component analysis (PCA) to determine which combination of functional traits best summarizes the grouping ofwoody species of tropical deciduous forest located in Vindhyan highlands, India. In PCA ordination, the first three axes together explained 98.9% of the between species variation (89.5%, 6.4% and 3.1% for axis 1, 2 and 3, respectively). The woody species exhibited assemblage in the ordination space on the basis of their functional traits. We observed higher leaf area index (LAI), leaf relative water content (RWC) and specific leaf area (SLA) for plant species present at moist sites, whereas, leaf dry matter content (LDMC), mass–based photosynthetic rate (Amax) and leaf water use efficiency (WUEi) were found greater for the species present at dry sites. We suggest extensive investigation of functional traits and their ecological significance in grouping of plant communities in tropical deciduous forest.2.Keywords: tropical deciduous forest, soil moisture content, woody species, functional traits, Vindhyan highlands.
