Water use efficiency (WUE) represents the trade-off between carbon assimilation and water loss in plants. It remains unclear how leaf stomatal and photosynthetic traits regulate the spatial variation of leaf WUE in different natural forest ecosystems.

We investigated 43 broad-leaf tree species spanning from cold-temperate to tropical forests in China. We quantified leaf WUE using leaf δ¹³C and measured stomatal traits, photosynthetic traits as well as maximum stomatal conductance (G_wmax) and maximum carboxylation capacity (V_cmax).

We found that leaves in cold-temperate forests displayed ‘fast’ carbon economics, characterized by higher leaf nitrogen, Chl, specific leaf area, and V_cmax, as an adaptation to the shorter growing season. However, these leaves exhibited ‘slow’ hydraulic traits, with larger but fewer stomata and similar G_wmax, resulting in higher leaf WUE. By contrast, leaves in tropical forests had smaller and denser stomata, enabling swift response to heterogeneous light conditions. However, this stomatal configuration increased potential water loss, and coupled with their low photosynthetic capacity, led to lower WUE.

Our findings contribute to understanding how plant photosynthetic and stomatal traits regulate carbon–water trade-offs across climatic gradients, advancing our ability to predict the impacts of climate changes on forest carbon and water cycles.