Abstract: Abstract：Seedling functional traits reflect plant life history strategy and may potentially influence forest regeneration and species coexistence in forest communities. Based on 25 hm2 Badagongshan (BDGS) forest plot in Hunan province, we selected 24 common tree species and collected functional traits of 826 seedlings. Variations of seedling functional traits and their effects on seedling survival were analyzed. The main results are as following: (1) Some significant trait trends were detected among different seedling height. Specific leaf area (SLA) and carbon-nitrogen ratio (C/N) decreased while stem specific density (SSD), petiole length (PL), nitrogen-phosphorus ratio (N/P) and chlorophyll (Chl) increased with the growth of seedling. (2) No significance of SLA and remarkable differences of leaf thickness (LT), Chl and N/P were detected between canopy, understory and shrub. SSD and PL showed no difference between canopy and shrub while C/N showed no difference between understory and shrub. (3) Evergreen trees had larger LT and Chl while deciduous trees had larger SLA, leaf nitrogen content (LNC), leaf phosphorus content (LPC) and PL. (4) Individual size meant a lot in seedling survival. LPC acted inversely in the survival of evergreen and deciduous seedlings. In early life stage, different plant functional groups adopted different adaptation strategies and seedlings of different sizes adjusted their traits to the light change. Moreover, there was a nitrogen limitation in seedling growth in Badagongshan (BDGS) subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest and this limitation became weaker with the growth of seedling.