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Aim: More powerful tests of biodiversity theories need to move beyond species richness and explicitly focus on mechanisms generating diversity via trait composition. The rise of trait-based ecology has led to an increased focus on the distribution and dynamics of traits across broad geographic and climatic gradients and how these distributions influence ecosystem function. However, a general theory of trait-based ecology, that can apply across different scales (e.g. species that differ in size) and gradients (e.g. temperature), has yet to be formulated. While research focused on metabolic and allometric scaling theory provides the basis for such a theory, it does not explicitly account for differences in traits within and across taxa, such as variation in the optimal temperature for growth. Here we synthesize trait-based and metabolic scaling approaches into a framework that we term ‘Trait Driver Theory’ or TDT. It shows …