scholarly journals Climatic factors shaping intraspecific leaf trait variation of a neotropical tree along a rainfall gradient

PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. e0208512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matheus L. Souza ◽  
Alexandre A. Duarte ◽  
Maria B. Lovato ◽  
Marcilio Fagundes ◽  
Fernando Valladares ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Rainfall Gradient ◽  
Leaf Trait ◽  
Neotropical Tree

Within-species leaf trait variation and ecological flexibility in resprouting tropical trees

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 527-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl F. Salk
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Area ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Leaf Mass Per Area ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Leaf Functional Traits ◽  
Leaf Trait ◽  
Neotropical Tree ◽  
Ecological Flexibility

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.

Topography consistently drives intra‐ and inter‐specific leaf trait variation within tree species complexes in a Neotropical forest

Oikos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 129 (10) ◽  
pp. 1521-1530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain Schmitt ◽  
Bruno Hérault ◽  
Émilie Ducouret ◽  
Anne Baranger ◽  
Niklas Tysklind ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tree Species ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Leaf Trait ◽  
Neotropical Forest ◽  
Species Complexes

scholarly journals Evaluating different methods for retrieving intraspecific leaf trait variation from hyperspectral leaf reflectance

2021 ◽  
Vol 130 ◽  
pp. 108111
Author(s):  
Kenny Helsen ◽  
Leonardo Bassi ◽  
Hannes Feilhauer ◽  
Teja Kattenborn ◽  
Hajime Matsushima ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trait Variation ◽  
Leaf Reflectance ◽  
Leaf Trait

scholarly journals Decomposing leaf mass into photosynthetic and structural components explains divergent patterns of trait variation within and among plant species

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masatoshi Katabuchi ◽  
Kaoru Kitajima ◽  
S. Joseph Wright ◽  
Sunshine A. Van Bael ◽  
Jeanne L. D. Osnas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
List Type ◽  
Metabolic Rates ◽  
Leaf Lifespan ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Leaf Toughness ◽  
Leaf Trait ◽  
Metabolic Traits ◽  
Leaf Mass ◽  
Mass Dependent

AbstractAcross the global flora, photosynthetic and metabolic rates depend more strongly on leaf area than leaf mass. In contrast, intraspecific variation in these rates is strongly mass-dependent. These contrasting patterns suggest that the causes of variation in leaf mass per area (LMA) may be fundamentally different within vs. among species.We used statistical methods to decompose LMA into two conceptual components – ‘photosynthetic’ LMAp (which determines photosynthetic capacity and metabolic rates, and also affects optimal leaf lifespan) and ‘structural’ LMAs (which determines leaf toughness and potential leaf lifespan) using leaf trait data from tropical forest sites in Panama and a global leaf-trait database.Statistically decomposing LMA into LMAp and LMAs provides improved predictions of trait variation (photosynthesis, respiration, and lifespan) across the global flora, and within and among tropical plant species in Panama. Our analysis shows that most interspecific LMA variation is due to LMAs (which explains why photosynthetic and metabolic traits are area-dependent across species) and that intraspecific LMA variation is due to changes in both LMAp and LMAs (which explains why photosynthetic and metabolic traits are mass-dependent within species).Our results suggest that leaf trait variation is multi-dimensional and is not well-represented by the one-dimensional leaf economics spectrum.

scholarly journals Leaf nitrogen from first principles: field evidence for adaptive variation with climate

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Dong ◽  
Iain Colin Prentice ◽  
Bradley J. Evans ◽  
Stefan Caddy-Retalic ◽  
Andrew J. Lowe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Species Turnover ◽  
Leaf Nitrogen ◽  
Functional Ecology ◽  
Leaf Mass Per Area ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Rubisco Activity ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Leaf Trait ◽  
Field Evidence

Abstract. Nitrogen content per unit leaf area (Narea) is a key variable in plant functional ecology and biogeochemistry. Narea comprises a structural component, which scales with leaf mass per area (LMA), and a metabolic component, which scales with Rubisco capacity. The co-ordination hypothesis, as implemented in LPJ and related global vegetation models, predicts that Rubisco capacity should be directly proportional to irradiance but should decrease with ci:ca and temperature because the amount of Rubisco required to achieve a given assimilation rate declines with both. We tested these predictions using LMA, leaf δ13C and leaf N measurements on complete species assemblages sampled at sites on a North-South transect from tropical to temperate Australia. Partial effects of mean canopy irradiance, mean annual temperature and ci:ca (from δ13C) on Narea were all significant and their directions and magnitudes were in line with predictions. Over 80 % of the variance in community-mean (ln) Narea was accounted for by these predictors plus LMA. Moreover, Narea could be decomposed into two components, one proportional to LMA (slightly steeper in N-fixers), the other to predicted Rubisco activity. Trait gradient analysis revealed ci:ca to be perfectly plastic, while species turnover contributed about half the variation in LMA and Narea. Interest has surged in methods to predict continuous leaf-trait variation from environmental factors, in order to improve ecosystem models. Our results indicate that Narea has a useful degree of predictability, from a combination of LMA and ci:ca – themselves in part environmentally determined – with Rubisco activity, as predicted from local growing conditions. This is consistent with a 'plant-centred' approach to modelling, emphasizing the adaptive regulation of traits. Models that account for biodiversity will also need to partition community-level trait variation into components due to phenotypic plasticity and/or genotypic differentiation within species, versus progressive species replacement, along environmental gradients. Our analysis suggests that variation in Narea is about evenly split between these two modes.

scholarly journals A comparative study of growth and leaf trait variation in twenty Cornus wilsoniana W. families in southeastern China

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 759-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
X Cheng ◽  
H Xie ◽  
L Zhang ◽  
M Wang ◽  
C Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Southeastern China ◽  
Leaf Trait

scholarly journals Distinct Responses of Leaf Traits to Environment and Phylogeny Between Herbaceous and Woody Angiosperm Species in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nannan An ◽  
Nan Lu ◽  
Bojie Fu ◽  
Mengyu Wang ◽  
Nianpeng He
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Area ◽  
Woody Species ◽  
Leaf Traits ◽  
Mean Annual Precipitation ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Dry Matter Content ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Leaf Trait ◽  
Environment Variables ◽  
Angiosperm Species

Leaf traits play key roles in plant resource acquisition and ecosystem processes; however, whether the effects of environment and phylogeny on leaf traits differ between herbaceous and woody species remains unclear. To address this, in this study, we collected data for five key leaf traits from 1,819 angiosperm species across 530 sites in China. The leaf traits included specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf area, leaf N concentration, and leaf P concentration, all of which are closely related to trade-offs between resource uptake and leaf construction. We quantified the relative contributions of environment variables and phylogeny to leaf trait variation for all species, as well as for herbaceous and woody species separately. We found that environmental factors explained most of the variation (44.4–65.5%) in leaf traits (compared with 3.9–23.3% for phylogeny). Climate variability and seasonality variables, in particular, mean temperature of the warmest and coldest seasons of a year (MTWM/MTWQ and MTCM/MTCQ) and mean precipitation in the wettest and driest seasons of a year (MPWM/MPWQ and MPDM/MPDQ), were more important drivers of leaf trait variation than mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP). Furthermore, the responses of leaf traits to environment variables and phylogeny differed between herbaceous and woody species. Our study demonstrated the different effects of environment variables and phylogeny on leaf traits among different plant growth forms, which is expected to advance the understanding of plant adaptive strategies and trait evolution under different environmental conditions.

scholarly journals Asymmetric effects of environmental filtering on the assembly of tropical bird communities along a moisture gradient

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Gomez ◽  
Scott Robinson ◽  
Jose Miguel Ponciano
Keyword(s):  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Communities ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Dry Forests ◽  
Rainfall Gradient ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Wet Forests

AbstractThe species-sorting hypothesis (SSH) states that environmental factors influence local community assembly of metacommunities by selecting for species that are well adapted to the specific conditions of each site. Along environmental gradients, the strength of selection against individuals that are marginally adapted to the local conditions increases towards the extremes of the environment where the climate becomes harsh. In rainfall gradients, the strength of selection by the environment has been proposed to decrease with rainfall. Under this scenario SSH would predict that immigration of individuals from the metacommunity should be restricted into the dry end of the gradient creating a positive relationship between immigration and rainfall. However, if the selection is strong in both ends of the gradient, the restriction should be expected to be in both directions such that the ends behave as independent metacommunities even in the absence of geographical barriers. In this study we used models based on neutral theory to evaluate if SSH can explain the distribution of bird species along a steep rainfall gradient in Colombia. We found a strong positive relationship between immigration rates and precipitation suggesting that the dry forests impose stronger challenges for marginally adapted bird populations. However, a two-metacommunity model separating dry and wet forests was a better fit to the observed data, suggesting that both extremes impose strong selection against immigrants. The switch from the dry forest to the wet forest metacommunities occurred abruptly over a short geographic distance in the absence of any apparent geographic barrier; this apparent threshold occurs where the forest becomes mostly evergreen. The relative number of rare species in dry forest was lower than in wet forests suggesting that the selection against marginally adapted populations is stronger in the dry forests. Overall, our analyses are consistent with SSH at the regional scales, but the rarity analysis suggests that the mechanisms at the local scales are substantially different. Based on these results, we hypothesize that abiotic (climatic) factors limit immigration into dry forest communities and whereas biotic factors such as competition and predation may limit immigration into bird communities in the wet forest.

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