Urban growth drives trait composition of urban spontaneous plant communities in a mountainous city in China.

Urban ecosystems feature intense anthropogenic activities and environmental stressors that filter species with varying life-history traits. The traits therefore provide an essential aspect to understanding how species respond to urban environments. We conducted this study in Chongqing, a mountainous city in southwestern China, and tested the hypothesis that the velocity of urban growth can alter functional compositions of urban plant communities through selection on species' taxonomic distributions and functional traits.