Table 1.

Phylogenetic signal across the full phylogeny

Niche trait	λ	P(λ)	K	P(K)
Soil moist N uptake (3)	0.144	<0.001	0.019	0.001
Max temp growth (4)	0.000	1	0.016	0.039
Min temp growth (3)	0.092	<0.001	0.016	0.115
Soil moist N uptake (2)	0.444	<0.001	0.023	0.001
Mean temp growth (2)	0.205	<0.001	0.020	0.001
Soil moist growth (2)	0.362	<0.001	0.021	0.001
Radiation growth (2)	0.054	0.064	0.018	0.005
Min temp growth (2)	0.415	<0.001	0.024	0.001
N soil growth (1)	0.158	<0.001	0.019	0.004
N soil growth (2)	0.132	<0.001	0.017	0.012
Mean temp N uptake (2)	0.215	<0.001	0.021	0.001

Phylogenetic signal in the 11 key niche traits based on a conifer phylogeny covering 455 species and estimated using Pagel’s λ and Blomberg’s K. The p-value (P) for λ is estimated using the likelihood ratio test. The p-value for K is estimated from a randomization test based on 1000 simulations of the data. The numbers in parentheses indicate the position of the specific trait in the growth or resource acquisition function. For example Soil moist N uptake (3), is the point at which increasing soil moisture, starts to limit nitrogen (N) uptake, i.e. when water logging limits N uptake. See Results and Discussion for details