Plant traits or plant functional traits are usually measurable properties, and are closely related to optimization of plant productivity or are an adaptation to the environment that evolved due to long-term adaptation and co-evolution of plants. Currently, most studies of plant traits are carried out at the level of individual plants or organs. At the individual level, scientists have made outstanding achievements in the past few decades to understand the productivity and nutrient acquisition traits, interrelationships among these traits, and other associated features. However, systematic data on plant traits are scarce, because most of these studies were conducted on several dominant species and focused on the leaves.To a large extent, such deficiency in systematic investigation data limits the development of trait studies and their applications, such as comprehension of how plant trait data may improve or optimize ecological models, and how much of these plant trait data match new field investigation approaches, such as remote sensing and eddy flux. More importantly, the effects of global changes on terrestrial ecosystems are already present and can be resolved at different regional scales, we expect to incorporate plant trait data into ecological models and remote sensing, to better resolve these eco-environmental problems. However, most of the components of ecosystem functioning (such as gross and net primary productivity, and water use efficiency) are mainly measured using the technologies of remote sensing, eddy-flux observation systems, and ecological models. Because of mismatches in spatial-scales and units between them, plant trait data have been less used to develop or optimize these macroecological approaches (remote sensing, eddy-flux observation systems, and models).To overcome the above-mentioned bottlenecks, scientists need to carry out a systematic survey of traits, including all species within typical communities, such as leaf-branch-stem-root and leaf morphology-anatomical structure-multi-element contents. With the help of the specific leaf area, community structure, and biomass allometric equation, scientists could scientifically scale-up the plant traits measured at the organ level in species, plant functional groups (trees, shrubs, and herbs), and communities, and then establish relationships between the plant traits and components of ecosystem functioning. Moreover, systematic data of plant traits may help us to explore the mechanisms of community structure maintenance and productivity optimization in nature. Nowadays, it is imperative to integrate plant traits (from the level of organ to community) and develop a new concept of community traits on land area. This is done to match the plant traits to the macroecology parameters at a spatial scale, which are mainly measured by remote sensing, eddy flux, and ecological modeling, because most of the current ecological and environmental problems need to be solved either at ecosystem or regional scales. Furthermore, establishing real relationships between plant traits and components of ecosystem functioning in natural communities will allow us to realize the association between plant trait data and satellite remote sensing data, and construct or optimize ecological models, and therefore, understand responses and adaptations of natural ecosystems to global changes at regional scale. A new concept of community traits on land areas can surely help us to better explore real relationships between plant traits and ecosystem functioning at the scale of natural communities.