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Global change is causing extensive changes in terrestrial ecosystems, driving unprecedented redistribution of species and organisms traits. Woody plants species may shift their ranges at slower rates than other organisms , but can partially adjust their leaf chemical-physical structure as a short-term response to environmental changes. These traits are involved in major eco-physiological processes, and often referred to as functional traits, proxies for ecological processes from communities structure to global land-surface biogeochemical cycles. Processes driving ecological systems are also inherently interconnected across scales. Local interactions can affect microclimate and scale up to influence species co-occurrence; large scale gradients in climate can affect realized niches within species ranges, inducing plastical adjust in trees physiology. Disentangling the influence of biological and environmental drivers by explicitly modeling cross-scale mechanisms may be fundamental to better understand terrestrial ecosystems.