Our reprint consists of 13 papers. The first paper is a summary of all the papers. In the second and third papers, foliar water uptake and its driving mechanisms are addressed. In the fourth and fifth papers, differences in functional traits, including chemical and physiological traits, across water environmental gradients and between organic tissues are examined. The sixth paper describes the effects of trait variation on plant diversity and ecosystem function. The seventh and eighth papers investigate the differences in nutrients between different tissues in plants and how they vary along environmental gradients. In the ninth study, the changes in tree cavities across the environmental gradient are expounded. Papers ten through eleventh describe the relationship among soil microbes, plants, and the environment. The twelve paper describes the vegetation response to runoff changes at the landscape scale. The last paper studies the impact of highway construction on ecosystem function.