Correction to: Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0790-1, published online 4 February 2019.

In the version of this Article originally published, there were unit conversion errors in the dataset when calculating specific leaf area (SLA) values at 10 of the 27 sites; errors were made when converting SLA from cm2 g–1 to mm2 g–1and from mm2 mg–1 to mm2 g–1. This resulted in two incorrect data points: Phleum pratense in plot 27 at the Frue.ch site (SLA >300,000 mm2 g–1) and Poa secunda in plot 31 at the shps.us site (SLA <60 mm2 g–1). These two values were changed to ‘NA’ in the dataset, and therefore some reported estimates were changed, resulting in changes to the data points in Fig. 2a, the top bar of Fig. 3 and several values in the text.