Abstract: Three key leaf functional traits [leaf dry mass per area (LMA), leaf nitrogen concentration per unit mass (N_mass), and massbased maximum photosynthetic rate (A_mass)] were measured in 31 woody species from tropical lowland rain forest with high rainfall and from dryhot valley savanna with low rainfall in southern Yunnan. The results indicated that LMA was 46.88-178.63 and 45.35-93.16 g·m^-2, A_mass was 48.12-176.65 and 71.38-265.76 nmol·g-¹·s^-1, and N_mass was 11.8-36.71 and 12.98-31.78 mg·g^-1 in the dry savanna and the wet rain forest, respectively. At the community level,A_masswas lower but LMA was higher in the plants of dry habitat than in wet habitat. N_masswas not significantly different between the plants from the two habitats. LMA was negatively associatedwith N_massand  A_massin dry habitat; A_massand N_masswere positively associated in both habitats. Our results indicated that correlations among the traits of plants from the same habitat converged although adaptive strategies were different among species. The adaptive strategies of dominant species changed from faster returns on investments in dry mass in wet habitat to slower return to high resourceuse efficiency in dry habitat.

Key words: ecological assessment, Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Zone, remote sensing based ecology index (RSEI).