Soil fertility and rainfall during specific phenological phases affect seed trait variation in a widely distributed Neotropical tree, Copaifera langsdorffii

Plants have an inherent flexibility to respond to different environmental conditions. One axis of plant ecophysiological strategy is seen in the spectrum of leaf functional traits. Flexibility in these traits would be suggestive of plants’ phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental changes. This research seeks to identify differences between leaves of sprout and non-sprout shoots of a broad ecological range of neotropical tree species. Using a functional-trait approach, this study assesses a large pool of species for within-species physiological flexibility. Leaf mass per area (LMA) and leaf area were measured for plants of sprout and non-sprout origin for 26 tree species grown in a reforestation plantation in Panama. Sprouts had a consistently lower LMA than non-sprouts, but there was no consistent pattern for leaf area. These trends show that sprouts are more like pioneer species than conspecific saplings, a finding in general agreement with fast sprout growth seen in previous studies. Further, later-successional (high LMA) species showed a greater reduction of LMA in sprouts. These results show that tropical tree species adjust physiologically to changing ecological roles and suggest that certain species may be more resilient than realized to changing climate and disturbance patterns.

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The role of the tolerance-fecundity trade-off in maintaining intraspecific seed trait variation in a widespread dimorphic herb

Plant Biology ◽

10.1111/j.1438-8677.2012.00684.x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 15 (5) ◽

pp. 899-909 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

J. Villellas ◽

M. B. García

Keyword(s):

Trait Variation ◽

Trade Off ◽

Seed Trait

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Intraspecific root and leaf trait variation with tropical forest successional status: consequences for community-weighted patterns

10.1101/611640 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

J. Aaron Hogan ◽

Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes ◽

Qiong Ding ◽

Han Xu ◽

Christopher Baraloto

Keyword(s):

Soil Fertility ◽

Tropical Forest ◽

Leaf Area ◽

Specific Root Length ◽

Functional Trait ◽

Primary Forest ◽

List Type ◽

Forest Age ◽

Trait Variation ◽

Trade Offs

SummaryQuantifying the dimensions and magnitude of intraspecific root trait variation is key to understanding the functional trade-offs in the belowground plant strategies of tropical forest trees. Additionally, accurately measuring how belowground functional trait variation relates to soil environment and forest age is crucial to tropical forest modeling efforts.We sampled leaf and root morphologies from 423 juvenile trees of 72 species from 14 Angiosperm families along a 6.6 km transect that corresponded to an environmental gradient in decreasing soil fertility and texture with increasing forest age.We observed within-lineage conservative functional trait-shifts in root and leaf morphological traits along the transect. From secondary to primary forest, average leaf area increased 7 cm2and average root system diameter increased 0.4 mm. Mean specific leaf area decreased by 0.8 m2kg−1, specific root length decreased by 3.5 m kg−1, and root branching intensity decreased by 0.3 tips cm−1. Leaf thickness and root tissue density showed no change.We coupled trait measurements to a network of 164 1/16th-ha plots across a Chinese tropical forest reserve, to scale individual trait measurements up to the community-level, accounting for forest age.For most traits, intraspecific trait variation negatively covaried with species compositional turnover between plots in younger versus older forest to compound and create greater community-weighted differences in trait values than would be observed if intraspecific variation in traits with forest age was not accounted for.SummaryRoot morphologies are variable with local scale variation in soil fertility and texture. Accurately understanding broader (i.e. forest)-scale patterns in root functional traits, requires attention to underlying environmental variation in soil resources, which interacts with environmental filtering of plant communities.

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