Today East Asia harbors many “relict” plant species whose ranges were much larger during the Paleogene-Neogene and earlier. The ecological and climatic conditions suitable for these relict species have not been identified. Here, we map the abundance and distribution patterns of relict species, showing high abundance in the humid subtropical/warm-temperate forest regions. We further use Ecological Niche Modeling to show that these patterns align with maps of climate refugia, and we predict species’ chances of persistence given the future climatic changes expected for East Asia. By 2070, potentially suitable areas with high richness of relict species will decrease, although the areas as a whole will probably expand. We identify areas in southwestern China and northern Vietnam as long-term climatically stable refugia likely to preserve ancient lineages, highlighting areas that could be prioritized for conservation of such species.

Summary The adoption of diverse resource acquisition strategies is critical for plant growth and species coexistence. Root phosphatase is of particular importance in the acquisition of soil phosphorus (P), yet it is often overlooked in studies of root trait syndromes. Here, we evaluated the role of root phosphatase activity (RPA) within the root economics space and the order‐based variation of RPA, as well as the correlations between RPA and a suite of leaf traits and soil properties over a range of evergreen tree species in a subtropical forest. Root phosphatase activity exhibited a high degree of inter‐specific variation. We found that there were two leading dimensions of the multidimensional root economics space, the root diameter–specific root length axis (collaboration trait gradient) and the root tissue density–root nitrogen concentration axis (classical trait gradient), and RPA aligned with the former. Root phosphatase activity is used as a ‘do it yourself’ strategy of soil P acquisition, and was found to be inversely correlated with mycorrhizal colonization, which suggests a trade‐off in plant P acquisition strategies. Compared with soil and foliar nutrient status, root traits mattered most for the large inter‐specific changes in RPA. Furthermore, RPA generally decreased from first‐ to third‐order roots. Taken together, such diverse P‐acquisition strategies are conducive to plant coexistence within local forest communities. The use of easily measurable root traits and their tight correlations with RPA could be a feasible and promising approach to estimating species‐specific RPA values, which would be helpful for better understanding plant P acquisition and soil P cycling.

Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) play important roles in adapting to environments in plants. Despite extensive research on the seasonal dynamics and species differences of NSC, the relative contributions of season and species to NSC is not well understood. We measured the concentration of starch, soluble sugar, NSC, and the soluble sugar:starch ratio in leaves, twigs, trunks and roots of twenty dominant species for dry and wet season in monsoon broad-leaved evergreen forest, respectively. The majority of concentration of NSC and starch in the roots, and the leaves contained the highest concentration of soluble sugar. A seasonal variation in starch and NSC concentrations higher in the dry season. Conversely, the wet season samples had higher concentration of soluble sugar and the sugar:starch ratio. Significant differences exist for starch, soluble sugar and NSC concentrations and the sugar:starch ratio across species. Most species had higher starch and NSC concentrations in the dry season and higher soluble sugar concentration and the sugar:starch ratio in wet season. Repeated variance analysis showed that starch and NSC concentrations were strongly affected by season although the effect of seasons, species, and the interaction of the two on the starch, soluble sugar, and NSC concentrations were significant.