ORCID Profile
0000-0001-8338-9143
Current Organisations
Western Sydney University
,
Macquarie University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Ecology | Terrestrial Ecology | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Terrestrial Ecology | Natural Resource Management | Ecosystem Function | Plant Biology not elsewhere classified | Ecological Applications | Ecology And Evolution Not Elsewhere Classified | Intellectual Property Law | Plant Biology | Ecology not elsewhere classified | Population, Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics | Climate Change Processes | Biological Mathematics | Plant Physiology | Plant Physiology | Landscape Ecology | Palaeoecology | Environmental Rehabilitation (excl. Bioremediation) | Community Ecology | Ecological Physiology
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences | Land and water management | Native vegetation | Global climate change adaptation measures | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Climate Change Models | Expanding Knowledge in Law and Legal Studies | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Environmental and resource evaluation not elsewhere classified | Ecosystem Assessment and Management not elsewhere classified | Land and water management | Remnant Vegetation and Protected Conservation Areas in Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Environments | Rehabilitation of Degraded Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Environments | Global Effects of Climate Change and Variability (excl. Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and the South Pacific) (excl. Social Impacts) | Expanding Knowledge in the Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences | Communication not elsewhere classified | Expanding Knowledge in the Mathematical Sciences |
Related Links
Publications
Global effects of soil and climate on leaf photosynthetic traits and rates
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-04-2015
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12296
To recycle or steal? Nutrient resorption in Australian and Brazilian mistletoes from three low‐phosphorus sites
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-06-2016
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.03455
Global relationship of wood and leaf litter decomposability: the role of functional traits within and across plant organs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-04-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12172
Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-02-2020
The AusTraits Plant Dictionary
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 18-06-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.16.545047
Abstract: Traits with intuitive names, a clear scope and explicit description are essential for all trait databases. Reanalysis of data from a single database, or analyses that integrate data across multiple databases, can only occur if researchers are confident the trait concepts are consistent within and across sources. The lack of a unified, comprehensive resource for plant trait definitions has previously limited the utility of trait databases. Here we describe the AusTraits Plant Dictionary (APD), which extends the trait definitions included in the new trait database AusTraits. The development process of the APD included three steps: review and formalisation of the scope of each trait and the accompanying trait description addition of trait meta-data and publication in both human and machine-readable forms. Trait definitions include keywords, references and links to related trait concepts in other databases, and the traits are grouped into a hierarchy for easy searching. As well as improving the usability of AusTraits, the Dictionary will foster the integration of trait data across global and regional plant trait databases.
Disentangling direct and indirect effects of island area on plant functional trait distributions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-05-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.14138
Abstract: Species ersity on islands generally increases with island area. This might arise either from direct effects of island area via neutral assembly processes or from indirect effects via habitat and structural differences between islands that scale positively with island area. Here, we tested whether community‐weighted functional trait means of woody plants are directly or indirectly affected by island area to elucidate how functional traits mediate the assembly on differently sized islands. Twenty‐eight tropical islands (25 m 2 – 12,000 m 2 ) in the Raja Ampat archipelago, Indonesia. Woody angiosperms. Studied islands had a shared geological history but differed in terms of area, habitat quality expressed by soil depth, forest structure expressed by tree basal area and degree of isolation. Traits studied were seed and fruit mass, tree height, wood density, leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen concentration and chlorophyll content (estimated from chlorophyll‐meter units) and summarised as community‐weighted means (CWM) for each island. Using liner regression, we tested whether CWMs were correlated to island area and basal area and structural equation models (SEMs) to test on direct and indirect effects of island area, basal area, soil depth and isolation on trait distributions. CWM of seed mass, tree height and chlorophyll content increased with both island area and basal area, whereas leaf nitrogen concentration decreased with increasing basal area. Fruit mass was not correlated to island area and basal area. SEMs revealed that the shifts in tree height, wood density, leaf nitrogen concentration and chlorophyll content were caused directly by basal area, which in turn was directly and positively affected by both island area and soil depth. Differences in seed mass among islands were explained by combined effects of basal area, island area and isolation, whereas fruit mass was only explained by isolation. Trait values shifted systematically across islands of different sizes. Being small and having light seeds are prevailing trait combinations for establishing on small islands with simple forest structure. For establishment on larger islands with more complex forest structures, species are taller, have heavier seeds, higher chlorophyll content and lower leaf N concentrations. We conclude that mechanisms affecting CWM on islands directly link to ecological differences between islands like forest structure – and only indirectly to island area.
New handbook for standardised measurement of plant functional traits worldwide
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2013
DOI: 10.1071/BT12225
Abstract: Plant functional traits are the features (morphological, physiological, phenological) that represent ecological strategies and determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels and influence ecosystem properties. Variation in plant functional traits, and trait syndromes, has proven useful for tackling many important ecological questions at a range of scales, giving rise to a demand for standardised ways to measure ecologically meaningful plant traits. This line of research has been among the most fruitful avenues for understanding ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes. It also has the potential both to build a predictive set of local, regional and global relationships between plants and environment and to quantify a wide range of natural and human-driven processes, including changes in bio ersity, the impacts of species invasions, alterations in biogeochemical processes and vegetation–atmosphere interactions. The importance of these topics dictates the urgent need for more and better data, and increases the value of standardised protocols for quantifying trait variation of different species, in particular for traits with power to predict plant- and ecosystem-level processes, and for traits that can be measured relatively easily. Updated and expanded from the widely used previous version, this handbook retains the focus on clearly presented, widely applicable, step-by-step recipes, with a minimum of text on theory, and not only includes updated methods for the traits previously covered, but also introduces many new protocols for further traits. This new handbook has a better balance between whole-plant traits, leaf traits, root and stem traits and regenerative traits, and puts particular emphasis on traits important for predicting species’ effects on key ecosystem properties. We hope this new handbook becomes a standard companion in local and global efforts to learn about the responses and impacts of different plant species with respect to environmental changes in the present, past and future.
BHPMF – a hierarchical B ayesian approach to gap‐filling and trait prediction for macroecology and functional biogeography
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-07-2015
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12335
A global study of relationships between leaf traits, climate and soil measures of nutrient fertility
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-02-2009
Photosynthetic responses to altitude: an explanation based on optimality principles
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-11-2016
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.14332
A roadmap to plant functional island biogeography
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-08-2021
DOI: 10.1111/BRV.12782
Abstract: Island biogeography is the study of the spatio‐temporal distribution of species, communities, assemblages or ecosystems on islands and other isolated habitats. Island ersity is structured by five classes of process: dispersal, establishment, biotic interactions, extinction and evolution. Classical approaches in island biogeography focused on species richness as the deterministic outcome of these processes. This has proved fruitful, but species traits can potentially offer new biological insights into the processes by which island life assembles and why some species perform better at colonising and persisting on islands. Functional traits refer to morphological and phenological characteristics of an organism or species that can be linked to its ecological strategy and that scale up from in idual plants to properties of communities and ecosystems. A baseline hypothesis is for traits and ecological strategies of island species to show similar patterns as a matched mainland environment. However, strong dispersal, environmental and biotic‐interaction filters as well as stochasticity associated with insularity modify this baseline. Clades that do colonise often embark on distinct ecological and evolutionary pathways, some because of distinctive evolutionary forces on islands, and some because of the opportunities offered by freedom from competitors or herbivores or the absence of mutualists. Functional traits are expected to be shaped by these processes. Here, we review and discuss the potential for integrating functional traits into island biogeography. While we focus on plants, the general considerations and concepts may be extended to other groups of organisms. We evaluate how functional traits on islands relate to core principles of species dispersal, establishment, extinction, reproduction, biotic interactions, evolution and conservation. We formulate existing knowledge as 33 working hypotheses. Some of these are grounded on firm empirical evidence, others provide opportunities for future research. We organise our hypotheses under five overarching sections. Section A focuses on plant functional traits enabling species dispersal to islands. Section B discusses how traits help to predict species establishment, successional trajectories and natural extinctions on islands. Section C reviews how traits indicate species biotic interactions and reproduction strategies and which traits promote intra‐island dispersal. Section D discusses how evolution on islands leads to predictable changes in trait values and which traits are most susceptible to change. Section E debates how functional ecology can be used to study multiple drivers of global change on islands and to formulate effective conservation measures. Islands have a justified reputation as research models. They illuminate the forces operating within mainland communities by showing what happens when those forces are released or changed. We believe that the lens of functional ecology can shed more light on these forces than research approaches that do not consider functional differences among species.
Safety margins and adaptive capacity of vegetation to climate change
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-06-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-019-44483-X
Abstract: Vegetation is composed of many in idual species whose climatic tolerances can be integrated into spatial analyses of climate change risk. Here, we quantify climate change risk to vegetation at a continental scale by calculating the safety margins for warming and drying ( i . e ., tolerance to projected change in temperature and precipitation respectively) across plants sharing 100 km × 100 km grid cells (locations). These safety margins measure how much warmer, or drier, a location could become before its ‘typical’ species exceeds its observed climatic limit. We also analyse the potential adaptive capacity of vegetation to temperature and precipitation change ( i . e ., likelihood of in situ persistence) using median precipitation and temperature breadth across all species in each location. 47% of vegetation across Australia is potentially at risk from increases in mean annual temperature (MAT) by 2070, with tropical regions most vulnerable. Vegetation at high risk from climate change often also exhibited low adaptive capacity. By contrast, 2% of the continent is at risk from reductions in annual precipitation by 2070. Risk from precipitation change was isolated to the southwest of Western Australia where both the safety margin for drier conditions in the typical species is low, and substantial reductions in MAP are projected.
Detecting myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) on lemon myrtle trees using spectral signatures and machine learning
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-02-2018
DOI: 10.1111/PPA.12830
The global spectrum of plant form and function
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-12-2015
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE16489
Abstract: Earth is home to a remarkable ersity of plant forms and life histories, yet comparatively few essential trait combinations have proved evolutionarily viable in today's terrestrial biosphere. By analysing worldwide variation in six major traits critical to growth, survival and reproduction within the largest s le of vascular plant species ever compiled, we found that occupancy of six-dimensional trait space is strongly concentrated, indicating coordination and trade-offs. Three-quarters of trait variation is captured in a two-dimensional global spectrum of plant form and function. One major dimension within this plane reflects the size of whole plants and their parts the other represents the leaf economics spectrum, which balances leaf construction costs against growth potential. The global plant trait spectrum provides a backdrop for elucidating constraints on evolution, for functionally qualifying species and ecosystems, and for improving models that predict future vegetation based on continuous variation in plant form and function.
Functional biogeography of Neotropical moist forests: Trait–climate relationships and assembly patterns of tree communities
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-05-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13309
Abstract: Here we examine the functional profile of regional tree species pools across the latitudinal distribution of Neotropical moist forests, and test trait–climate relationships among local communities. We expected opportunistic strategies (acquisitive traits, small seeds) to be overrepresented in species pools further from the equator, but also in terms of abundance in local communities in currently wetter, warmer and more seasonal climates. Neotropics. Recent. Trees. We obtained abundance data from 471 plots across nine Neotropical regions, including c . 100,000 trees of 3,417 species, in addition to six functional traits. We compared occurrence‐based trait distributions among regional species pools, and evaluated single trait–climate relationships across local communities using community abundance‐weighted means (CWMs). Multivariate trait–climate relationships were assessed by a double‐constrained correspondence analysis that tests both how CWMs relate to climate and how species distributions, parameterized by niche centroids in climate space, relate to their traits. Regional species pools were undistinguished in functional terms, but opportunistic strategies dominated local communities further from the equator, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere. Climate explained up to 57% of the variation in CWM traits, with increasing prevalence of lower‐statured, light‐wooded and softer‐leaved species bearing smaller seeds in more seasonal, wetter and warmer climates. Species distributions were significantly but weakly related to functional traits. Neotropical moist forest regions share similar sets of functional strategies, from which local assembly processes, driven by current climatic conditions, select for species with different functional strategies. We can thus expect functional responses to climate change driven by changes in relative abundances of species already present regionally. Particularly, equatorial forests holding the most conservative traits and large seeds are likely to experience the most severe changes if climate change triggers the proliferation of opportunistic tree species.
Enhanced leaf turnover and nitrogen recycling sustain CO2 fertilization effect on tree-ring growth
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-07-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-022-01811-1
Abstract: Whether increased photosynthates under elevated atmospheric CO
On the link between functional traits and growth rate
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-06-2016
Climate warming and plant biomechanical defences: Silicon addition contributes to herbivore suppression in a pasture grass
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-02-2019
Weak tradeoff between xylem safety and xylem‐specific hydraulic efficiency across the world's woody plant species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-09-2015
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.13646
Abstract: The evolution of lignified xylem allowed for the efficient transport of water under tension, but also exposed the vascular network to the risk of gas emboli and the spread of gas between xylem conduits, thus impeding sap transport to the leaves. A well‐known hypothesis proposes that the safety of xylem (its ability to resist embolism formation and spread) should trade off against xylem efficiency (its capacity to transport water). We tested this safety–efficiency hypothesis in branch xylem across 335 angiosperm and 89 gymnosperm species. Safety was considered at three levels: the xylem water potentials where 12%, 50% and 88% of maximal conductivity are lost. Although correlations between safety and efficiency were weak ( r 2 0.086), no species had high efficiency and high safety, supporting the idea for a safety–efficiency tradeoff. However, many species had low efficiency and low safety. Species with low efficiency and low safety were weakly associated ( r 2 0.02 in most cases) with higher wood density, lower leaf‐ to sapwood‐area and shorter stature. There appears to be no persuasive explanation for the considerable number of species with both low efficiency and low safety. These species represent a real challenge for understanding the evolution of xylem.
Leaf nitrogen from the perspective of optimal plant function
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2022
Abstract: Leaf dry mass per unit area (LMA), carboxylation capacity ( V cmax ) and leaf nitrogen per unit area (N area ) and mass (N mass ) are key traits for plant functional ecology and ecosystem modelling. There is however no consensus about how these traits are regulated, or how they should be modelled. Here we confirm that observed leaf nitrogen across species and sites can be estimated well from observed LMA and V cmax at 25°C ( V cmax25 ). We then test the hypothesis that global variations of both quantities depend on climate variables in specific ways that are predicted by leaf‐level optimality theory, thus allowing both N area to be predicted as functions of the growth environment. A new global compilation of field measurements was used to quantify the empirical relationships of leaf N to V cmax25 and LMA. Relationships of observed V cmax25 and LMA to climate variables were estimated, and compared to independent theoretical predictions of these relationships. Soil effects were assessed by analysing biases in the theoretical predictions. LMA was the most important predictor of N area (increasing) and N mass (decreasing). About 60% of global variation across species and sites in observed N area , and 31% in N mass , could be explained by observed LMA and V cmax25 . These traits, in turn, were quantitatively related to climate variables, with significant partial relationships similar or indistinguishable from those predicted by optimality theory. Predicted trait values explained 21% of global variation in observed site‐mean V cmax25 , 43% in LMA and 31% in N area . Predicted V cmax25 was biased low on clay‐rich soils but predicted LMA was biased high, with compensating effects on N area . N area was overpredicted on organic soils. Synthesis . Global patterns of variation in observed site‐mean N area can be explained by climate‐induced variations in optimal V cmax25 and LMA. Leaf nitrogen should accordingly be modelled as a consequence (not a cause) of V cmax25 and LMA, both being optimized to the environment. Nitrogen limitation of plant growth would then be modelled principally via whole‐plant carbon allocation, rather than via leaf‐level traits. Further research is required to better understand and model the terrestrial nitrogen and carbon cycles and their coupling.
The worldwide leaf economics spectrum
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-2004
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE02403
Correction: Broad Anatomical Variation within a Narrow Wood Density Range—A Study of Twig Wood across 69 Australian Angiosperms
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 25-09-2015
Correlations among leaf traits provide a significant constraint on the estimate of global gross primary production
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 10-10-2012
DOI: 10.1029/2012GL053461
AnimalTraits - a curated animal trait database for body mass, metabolic rate and brain size
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-06-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-022-01364-9
Abstract: Trait databases have become important resources for large-scale comparative studies in ecology and evolution. Here we introduce the AnimalTraits database, a curated database of body mass, metabolic rate and brain size, in standardised units, for terrestrial animals. The database has broad taxonomic breadth, including tetrapods, arthropods, molluscs and annelids from almost 2000 species and 1000 genera. All data recorded in the database are sourced from their original empirical publication, and the original metrics and measurements are included with each record. This allows for subsequent data transformations as required. We have included rich metadata to allow users to filter the dataset. The additional R scripts we provide will assist researchers with aggregating standardised observations into species-level trait values. Our goals are to provide this resource without restrictions, to keep the AnimalTraits database current, and to grow the number of relevant traits in the future.
Leaves at low versus high rainfall
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-08-2002
Functional linkages between leaf traits and net photosynthetic rate: reconciling empirical and mechanistic models
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2005
Environmental associations of abundance-weighted functional traits in Australian plant communities
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2022
Functional diversity of the Australian flora: Strong links to species richness and climate
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JVS.13018
Quantifying leaf‐trait covariation and its controls across climates and biomes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-09-2018
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.15422
Abstract: Plant functional ecology requires the quantification of trait variation and its controls. Field measurements on 483 species at 48 sites across China were used to analyse variation in leaf traits, and assess their predictability. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to characterize trait variation, redundancy analysis (RDA) to reveal climate effects, and RDA with variance partitioning to estimate separate and overlapping effects of site, climate, life-form and family membership. Four orthogonal dimensions of total trait variation were identified: leaf area (LA), internal-to-ambient CO
Global shortfalls in threat assessments for endemic flora by country
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-04-2023
DOI: 10.1002/PPP3.10369
Abstract: Plants are fundamental to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and are key to human livelihoods. To protect plant ersity, systematic approaches to conservation assessment are needed. Many nations have legislation or other policy instruments that seek to protect bio ersity (including plants), and species‐level assessments are essential for identifying the most threatened species that require special and immediate protection measures. Some plants occur in only one place (for instance, a single country) and here we have estimated how many of these ‘endemic’ species have had their threats assessed in each country or close country‐equivalent worldwide. We show that the level of assessment completion is only weakly related to the income of countries or the likely level of threat that species face. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation ambitiously called for an assessment of the conservation status of all recognised plant taxa by 2020. This target was not met in the short term. Nevertheless, the need for conservation assessments remains urgent as plants go extinct and face increasing threats from human impacts on the biosphere. Here, the completeness of threat assessments for endemic flora in 179 countries or their close equivalents was assessed. To do so, distribution information from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants was combined with assessments collated in the ThreatSearch database. The completeness of assessments was expected to be associated with the objective affluence of countries (measured using inequality‐adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)) and/or the exposure of their plant species to threats associated with human impacts (measured using Global Human Modification index (GHM)). The number of endemic species per country was also hypothesised to influence the completion of assessments. Overall, 58% of all country‐based endemic species examined have no conservation assessment (127,643 species). Countries' progress toward the completion of threat assessments for endemic plants could not be confidently predicted by IHDI, GHM or the richness of endemic plant flora. The shortfall in threat assessments identified here restricts national regulation of actions which imperil plant species, with particular consequences for endemic plant species subject to local laws. Some nations with high IHDI scores (i.e. wealthier nations) are not systematically assessing extinction risk in their endemic species. Scarce funding should be directed to global hotspots of endemism with few available resources for assessment.
Trait filtering in island floras: A conceptual framework
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-08-2023
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.14703
Abstract: Dispersal and environmental filtering processes affect plant species colonisation success on islands and can be identified by functional traits. However, the lack of synthesis about the different methodological approaches in functional ecology h ers generalisation of filtering processes across island systems. Seventy islands of the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago, Western Australia. Angiosperms. We (i) apply a simple, conceptual framework based on the mean and variability of in idual functional traits in plant assemblages to identify species filters on islands, (ii) illustrate how trait distributions of island assemblages change in relation to island area and their source pool, (iii) compare distributions of in idual traits to multivariate functional ersity indices and trait spaces and (iv) provide guidelines to detect a signal of trait filtering in island floras. The island assemblages showed evidence for selective filters operating on seed mass and marginally on leaf area but not on plant height. Mean and variability of seed mass differed to those of the source pool indicating selective forces operating between source pool and island assemblages, especially on smaller islands. Multivariate functional ersity indices and trait spaces failed to reveal filtering processes acting on the island assemblages and insights into the putative processes. Using the mean and variability of in idual traits in plant assemblages provides direct information on the trait composition of island floras and the processes involved beyond what can be inferred from multivariate functional ersity indices or trait spaces. We used islands as their distinct boundaries and relatively simple sets of species provide good research models, but joint analyses of trait means and variability should also be applicable to understand filtering processes in isolates and habitat fragments on mainlands.
A global trait‐based approach to estimate leaf nitrogen functional allocation from observations
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-05-2017
DOI: 10.1002/EAP.1542
Abstract: Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients for plant growth and a major constituent of proteins that regulate photosynthetic and respiratory processes. However, a comprehensive global analysis of nitrogen allocation in leaves for major processes with respect to different plant functional types (PFTs) is currently lacking. This study integrated observations from global databases with photosynthesis and respiration models to determine plant-functional-type-specific allocation patterns of leaf nitrogen for photosynthesis (Rubisco, electron transport, light absorption) and respiration (growth and maintenance), and by difference from observed total leaf nitrogen, an unexplained "residual" nitrogen pool. Based on our analysis, crops partition the largest fraction of nitrogen to photosynthesis (57%) and respiration (5%) followed by herbaceous plants (44% and 4%). Tropical broadleaf evergreen trees partition the least to photosynthesis (25%) and respiration (2%) followed by needle-leaved evergreen trees (28% and 3%). In trees (especially needle-leaved evergreen and tropical broadleaf evergreen trees) a large fraction (70% and 73%, respectively) of nitrogen was not explained by photosynthetic or respiratory functions. Compared to crops and herbaceous plants, this large residual pool is hypothesized to emerge from larger investments in cell wall proteins, lipids, amino acids, nucleic acid, CO
A test of the 'one-point method' for estimating maximum carboxylation capacity from field-measured, light-saturated photosynthesis
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-12-2016
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.13815
Abstract: Simulations of photosynthesis by terrestrial biosphere models typically need a specification of the maximum carboxylation rate ( V cmax ). Estimating this parameter using A – C i curves (net photosynthesis, A , vs intercellular CO 2 concentration, C i ) is laborious, which limits availability of V cmax data. However, many multispecies field datasets include net photosynthetic rate at saturating irradiance and at ambient atmospheric CO 2 concentration ( A sat ) measurements, from which V cmax can be extracted using a ‘one‐point method’. We used a global dataset of A – C i curves (564 species from 46 field sites, covering a range of plant functional types) to test the validity of an alternative approach to estimate V cmax from A sat via this ‘one‐point method’. If leaf respiration during the day ( R day ) is known exactly, V cmax can be estimated with an r 2 value of 0.98 and a root‐mean‐squared error ( RMSE ) of 8.19 μmol m −2 s −1 . However, R day typically must be estimated. Estimating R day as 1.5% of V cmax, we found that V cmax could be estimated with an r 2 of 0.95 and an RMSE of 17.1 μmol m −2 s −1 . The one‐point method provides a robust means to expand current databases of field‐measured V cmax , giving new potential to improve vegetation models and quantify the environmental drivers of V cmax variation.
Ecological strategies of (pl)ants: Towards a world‐wide worker economic spectrum for ants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-07-2022
Abstract: Current global challenges call for a rigorously predictive ecology. Our understanding of ecological strategies, imputed through suites of measurable functional traits, comes from decades of work that largely focussed on plants. However, a key question is whether plant ecological strategies resemble those of other organisms. Among animals, ants have long been recognised to possess similarities with plants: as (largely) central place foragers. For ex le, in idual ant workers play similar foraging roles to plant leaves and roots and are similarly expendable. Frameworks that aim to understand plant ecological strategies through key functional traits, such as the ‘leaf economics spectrum’, offer the potential for significant parallels with ant ecological strategies. Here, we explore these parallels across several proposed ecological strategy dimensions, including an ‘economic spectrum’, propagule size‐number trade‐offs, apparency‐defence trade‐offs, resource acquisition trade‐offs and stress‐tolerance trade‐offs. We also highlight where ecological strategies may differ between plants and ants. Furthermore, we consider how these strategies play out among the different modules of eusocial organisms, where selective forces act on the worker and reproductive castes, as well as the colony. Finally, we suggest future directions for ecological strategy research, including highlighting the availability of data and traits that may be more difficult to measure, but should receive more attention in future to better understand the ecological strategies of ants. The unique biology of eusocial organisms provides an unrivalled opportunity to bridge the gap in our understanding of ecological strategies in plants and animals and we hope that this perspective will ignite further interest. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Organizing principles for vegetation dynamics
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-05-2020
Acclimation of leaf respiration consistent with optimal photosynthetic capacity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-02-2020
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14980
Plant hydraulics coordinated with photosynthetic traits and climate
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 02-03-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.03.02.433324
Abstract: The coupling between water loss and carbon dioxide uptake drives the coordination of plant hydraulic and photosynthetic traits. Analysing multi-species measurements on a 3000 m elevation gradient, we found that hydraulic and leaf-economic traits were less plastic, and more closely associated with phylogeny, than photosynthetic traits. The two trait sets are linked by the sapwood-to-leaf area ratio (Huber value, v H ), shown here to be codetermined by sapwood hydraulic conductance ( K S ), leaf mass-per-area (LMA) and photosynthetic capacity ( V cmax ). Substantial hydraulic ersity was related to the trade-off between K S and v H . Leaf drought tolerance (inferred from turgor loss point, –π tlp ) increased with wood density, but the trade-off between hydraulic efficiency ( K S ) and –π tlp was weak. The least-cost optimality framework was extended to predict trait ( K S -dominated) and environmental (temperature-dominated) effects on v H . These results suggest an approach to include photosynthetic-hydraulic coordination in land-surface models however, prediction of non-plastic trait distributions remains a challenge.
Modulation of leaf economic traits and trait relationships by climate
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-08-2005
Mechanisms underlying global temperature‐related patterns in leaf longevity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-01-2013
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12042
Global photosynthetic capacity is optimized to the environment
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-01-2019
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.13210
Global leaf nitrogen and phosphorus stoichiometry and their scaling exponent
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 15-12-2017
DOI: 10.1093/NSR/NWX142
Abstract: Leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations constrain photosynthetic and metabolic processes, growth and the productivity of plants. Their stoichiometry and scaling relationships regulate the allocation of N and P from subcellular to organism, and even ecosystem levels, and are crucial to the modelling of plant growth and nutrient cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. Prior work has revealed a general biogeographic pattern of leaf N and P stoichiometric relationships and shown that leaf N scales roughly as two-thirds the power of P. However, determining whether and how leaf N and P stoichiometries, especially their scaling exponents, change with functional groups and environmental conditions requires further verification. In this study, we compiled a global data set and documented the global leaf N and P concentrations and the N:P ratios by functional group, climate zone and continent. The global overall mean leaf N and P concentrations were 18.9 mg g−1 and 1.2 mg g−1, respectively, with significantly higher concentrations in herbaceous than woody plants (21.72 mg g−1 vs. 18.22 mg g−1 for N and 1.64 mg g−1 vs. 1.10 mg g−1 for P). Both leaf N and P showed higher concentrations at high latitudes than low latitudes. Among six continents, Europe had the highest N and P concentrations (20.79 and 1.54 mg g−1) and Oceania had the smallest values (10.01 and 0.46 mg g−1). These numerical values may be used as a basis for the comparison of other in idual studies. Further, we found that the scaling exponent varied significantly across different functional groups, latitudinal zones, ecoregions and sites. The exponents of herbaceous and woody plants were 0.659 and 0.705, respectively, with significant latitudinal patterns decreasing from tropical to temperate to boreal zones. At sites with a s le size ≥10, the values fluctuated from 0.366 to 1.928, with an average of 0.841. Several factors including the intrinsic attributes of different life forms, P-related growth rates and relative nutrient availability of soils likely account for the inconstant exponents of leaf N vs. P scaling relationships.
Bark traits, decomposition and flammability of Australian forest trees
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1071/BT16258
Abstract: Bark shedding is a remarkable feature of Australian trees, yet relatively little is known about interspecific differences in bark decomposability and flammability, or what chemical or physical traits drive variation in these properties. We measured the decomposition rate and flammability (ignitibility, sustainability and combustibility) of bark from 10 common forest tree species, and quantified correlations with potentially important traits. We compared our findings to those for leaf litter, asking whether the same traits drive flammability and decomposition in different tissues, and whether process rates are correlated across tissue types. Considerable variation in bark decomposability and flammability was found both within and across species. Bark decomposed more slowly than leaves, but in both tissues lignin concentration was a key driver. Bark took longer to ignite than leaves, and had longer mass-specific flame durations. Variation in flammability parameters was driven by different traits in the different tissues. Decomposability and flammability were each unrelated, when comparing between the different tissue types. For ex le, species with fast-decomposing leaves did not necessarily have fast-decomposing bark. For the first time, we show how patterns of variation in decomposability and flammability of bark erge across multiple species. By taking species-specific bark traits into consideration there is potential to make better estimates of wildfire risks and carbon loss dynamics. This can lead to better informed management decisions for Australian forests, and eucalypt plantations, worldwide.
Global variability in leaf respiration in relation to climate, plant functional types and leaf traits
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-08-0008
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.13253
Abstract: Leaf dark respiration ( R dark ) is an important yet poorly quantified component of the global carbon cycle. Given this, we analyzed a new global database of R dark and associated leaf traits. Data for 899 species were compiled from 100 sites (from the Arctic to the tropics). Several woody and nonwoody plant functional types (PFTs) were represented. Mixed‐effects models were used to disentangle sources of variation in R dark . Area‐based R dark at the prevailing average daily growth temperature ( T ) of each site increased only twofold from the Arctic to the tropics, despite a 20°C increase in growing T (8–28°C). By contrast, R dark at a standard T (25°C, R dark 25 ) was threefold higher in the Arctic than in the tropics, and twofold higher at arid than at mesic sites. Species and PFTs at cold sites exhibited higher R dark 25 at a given photosynthetic capacity ( V cmax 25 ) or leaf nitrogen concentration ([N]) than species at warmer sites. R dark 25 values at any given V cmax 25 or [N] were higher in herbs than in woody plants. The results highlight variation in R dark among species and across global gradients in T and aridity. In addition to their ecological significance, the results provide a framework for improving representation of R dark in terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) and associated land‐surface components of Earth system models (ESMs).
ARE FUNCTIONAL TRAITS GOOD PREDICTORS OF DEMOGRAPHIC RATES? EVIDENCE FROM FIVE NEOTROPICAL FORESTS
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2008
DOI: 10.1890/07-0207.1
Abstract: A central goal of comparative plant ecology is to understand how functional traits vary among species and to what extent this variation has adaptive value. Here we evaluate relationships between four functional traits (seed volume, specific leaf area, wood density, and adult stature) and two demographic attributes (diameter growth and tree mortality) for large trees of 240 tree species from five Neotropical forests. We evaluate how these key functional traits are related to survival and growth and whether similar relationships between traits and demography hold across different tropical forests. There was a tendency for a trade-off between growth and survival across rain forest tree species. Wood density, seed volume, and adult stature were significant predictors of growth and/or mortality. Both growth and mortality rates declined with an increase in wood density. This is consistent with greater construction costs and greater resistance to stem damage for denser wood. Growth and mortality rates also declined as seed volume increased. This is consistent with an adaptive syndrome in which species tolerant of low resource availability (in this case shade-tolerant species) have large seeds to establish successfully and low inherent growth and mortality rates. Growth increased and mortality decreased with an increase in adult stature, because taller species have a greater access to light and longer life spans. Specific leaf area was, surprisingly, only modestly informative for the performance of large trees and had ambiguous relationships with growth and survival. Single traits accounted for 9-55% of the interspecific variation in growth and mortality rates at in idual sites. Significant correlations with demographic rates tended to be similar across forests and for phylogenetically independent contrasts as well as for cross-species analyses that treated each species as an independent observation. In combination, the morphological traits explained 41% of the variation in growth rate and 54% of the variation in mortality rate, with wood density being the best predictor of growth and mortality. Relationships between functional traits and demographic rates were statistically similar across a wide range of Neotropical forests. The consistency of these results strongly suggests that tropical rain forest species face similar trade-offs in different sites and converge on similar sets of solutions.
Is there a latitudinal gradient in seed production?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2009
Lifetime return on investment increases with leaf lifespan among 10 Australian woodland species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-11-2012
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2011.03940.X
Abstract: • Co-occurring species often differ in their leaf lifespan (LL) and it remains unclear how such variation is maintained in a competitive context. Here we test the hypothesis that leaves of long-LL species yield a greater return in carbon (C) fixed per unit C or nutrient invested by the plant than those of short-LL species. • For 10 sympatric woodland species, we assessed three-dimensional shoot architecture, canopy openness, leaf photosynthetic light response, leaf dark respiration and leaf construction costs across leaf age sequences. We then used the YPLANT model to estimate light interception and C revenue along the measured leaf age sequences. This was done under a series of simulations that incorporated the potential covariates of LL in an additive fashion. • Lifetime return in C fixed per unit C, N or P invested increased with LL in all simulations. • In contrast to other recent studies, our results show that extended LL confers a fundamental economic advantage by increasing a plant's return on investment in leaves. This suggests that time-discounting effects, that is, the compounding of income that arises from quick reinvestment of C revenue, are key in allowing short-LL species to succeed in the face of this economic handicap.
Bivariate line-fitting methods for allometry
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-03-2006
TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-12-2019
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14904
Abstract: Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to bio ersity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on in idual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives.
Least-cost input mixtures of water and nitrogen for photosynthesis
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 2003
DOI: 10.1086/344920
Summer solstice marks a seasonal shift in temperature sensitivity of stem growth and nitrogen-use efficiency in cold-limited forests
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2018
An evolutionary perspective on leaf economics: phylogenetics of leaf mass per area in vascular plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2014
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.1087
Sapwood capacitance is greater in evergreen sclerophyll species growing in high compared to low‐rainfall environments
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-11-2013
Rising CO 2 drives divergence in water use efficiency of evergreen and deciduous plants
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 06-12-2019
Abstract: A rapid rise in CO 2 has made evergreen trees more waterwise than deciduous trees, especially in cooler parts of the world.
Hydraulic failure and tree size linked with canopy die‐back in eucalypt forest during extreme drought
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-04-2021
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.17298
Abstract: Eastern Australia was subject to its hottest and driest year on record in 2019. This extreme drought resulted in massive canopy die‐back in eucalypt forests. The role of hydraulic failure and tree size on canopy die‐back in three eucalypt tree species during this drought was examined. We measured pre‐dawn and midday leaf water potential (Ψ leaf ), per cent loss of stem hydraulic conductivity and quantified hydraulic vulnerability to drought‐induced xylem embolism. Tree size and tree health was also surveyed. Trees with most, or all, of their foliage dead exhibited high rates of native embolism (78–100%). This is in contrast to trees with partial canopy die‐back (30–70% canopy die‐back: 72–78% native embolism), or relatively healthy trees (little evidence of canopy die‐back: 25–31% native embolism). Midday Ψ leaf was significantly more negative in trees exhibiting partial canopy die‐back (−2.7 to −6.3 MPa), compared with relatively healthy trees (−2.1 to −4.5 MPa). In two of the species the majority of in iduals showing complete canopy die‐back were in the small size classes. Our results indicate that hydraulic failure is strongly associated with canopy die‐back during drought in eucalypt forests. Our study provides valuable field data to help constrain models predicting mortality risk.
Leaf size estimation based on leaf length, width and shape
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 22-06-2021
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCAB078
Abstract: Leaf size has considerable ecological relevance, making it desirable to obtain leaf size estimations for as many species worldwide as possible. Current global databases, such as TRY, contain leaf size data for ~30 000 species, which is only ~8% of known species worldwide. Yet, taxonomic descriptions exist for the large majority of the remainder. Here we propose a simple method to exploit information on leaf length, width and shape from species descriptions to robustly estimate leaf areas, thus closing this considerable knowledge gap for this important plant functional trait. Using a global dataset of all major leaf shapes measured on 3125 leaves from 780 taxa, we quantified scaling functions that estimate leaf size as a product of leaf length, width and a leaf shape-specific correction factor. We validated our method by comparing leaf size estimates with those obtained from image recognition software and compared our approach with the widely used correction factor of 2/3. Correction factors ranged from 0.39 for highly dissected, lobed leaves to 0.79 for oblate leaves. Leaf size estimation using leaf shape-specific correction factors was more accurate and precise than estimates obtained from the correction factor of 2/3. Our method presents a tractable solution to accurately estimate leaf size when only information on leaf length, width and shape is available or when labour and time constraints prevent usage of image recognition software. We see promise in applying our method to data from species descriptions (including from fossils), databases, field work and on herbarium vouchers, especially when non-destructive in situ measurements are needed.
Are species shade and drought tolerance reflected in leaf‐level structural and functional differentiation in Northern Hemisphere temperate woody flora?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-07-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2009.02918.X
Abstract: Leaf-level determinants of species environmental stress tolerance are still poorly understood. Here, we explored dependencies of species shade (T(shade)) and drought (T(drought)) tolerance scores on key leaf structural and functional traits in 339 Northern Hemisphere temperate woody species. In general, T(shade) was positively associated with leaf life-span (L(L)), and negatively with leaf dry mass (M(A)), nitrogen content (N(A)), and photosynthetic capacity (A(A)) per area, while opposite relationships were observed with drought tolerance. Different trait combinations responsible for T(shade) and T(drought) were observed among the key plant functional types: deciduous and evergreen broadleaves and evergreen conifers. According to principal component analysis, resource-conserving species with low N content and photosynthetic capacity, and high L(L) and M(A), had higher T(drought), consistent with the general stress tolerance strategy, whereas variation in T(shade) did not concur with the postulated stress tolerance strategy. As drought and shade often interact in natural communities, reverse effects of foliar traits on these key environmental stress tolerances demonstrate that species niche differentiation is inherently constrained in temperate woody species. Different combinations of traits among key plant functional types further explain the contrasting bivariate correlations often observed in studies seeking functional explanation of variation in species environmental tolerances.
Intraspecific variation in soy across the leaf economics spectrum
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 09-08-2018
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCY147
Fame, glory and neglect in meta-analyses
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2011
Leaf phosphorus influences the photosynthesis–nitrogen relation: a cross-biome analysis of 314 species
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-02-2009
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-009-1291-3
Abstract: The ecophysiological linkage of leaf phosphorus (P) to photosynthetic capacity (A (max)) and to the A (max)-nitrogen relation remains poorly understood. To address this issue we compiled published and unpublished field data for mass-based A (max), nitrogen (N) and P (n = 517 observations) from 314 species at 42 sites in 14 countries. Data were from four biomes: arctic, cold temperate, subtropical (including Mediterranean), and tropical. We asked whether plants with low P levels have low A (max), a shallower slope of the A (max)-N relationship, and whether these patterns have a geographic signature. On average, leaf P was substantially lower in the two warmer than in the two colder biomes, with the reverse true for N:P ratios. The evidence indicates that the response of A (max) to leaf N is constrained by low leaf P. Using a full factorial model for all data, A (max) was related to leaf N, but not to leaf P on its own, with a significant leaf N x leaf P interaction indicating that the response of A (max) to N increased with increasing leaf P. This was also found in analyses using one value per species per site, or by comparing only angiosperms or only woody plants. Additionally, the slope of the A (max)-N relationship was higher in the colder arctic and temperate than warmer tropical and subtropical biomes. Sorting data into low, medium, and high leaf P groupings also showed that the A (max)-N slope increases with leaf P. These analyses support claims that in P-limited ecosystems the A (max)-N relationship may be constrained by low P, and are consistent with laboratory studies that show P-deficient plants have limited ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate regeneration, a likely mechanism for the P influence upon the A (max)-N relation.
Leaf mesophyll diffusion conductance in 35 Australian sclerophylls covering a broad range of foliage structural and physiological variation
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 02-03-2009
DOI: 10.1093/JXB/ERP045
Abstract: Foliage structure, chemistry, photosynthetic potentials (V(cmax) and J(max)), and mesophyll diffusion conductance (g(m)) were quantified for 35 broad-leaved species from four sites with contrasting rainfall and soil fertility in eastern Australia. The aim of the study was to estimate the extent to which g(m) and related leaf properties limited photosynthesis (A), focusing on highly sclerophyllous species typical of the 'slow-return' end of the leaf economics spectrum. Leaf dry mass per unit area (M(A)) varied approximately 5-fold, leaf life span (L(L)) and N (N(M)) and P (P(M)) contents per dry mass approximately 8-fold, and various characteristics of foliage photosynthetic machinery 6- to 12-fold across the data set. As is characteristic of the 'leaf economics spectrum', more robust leaves with greater M(A) and longevity were associated with lower nutrient contents and lower foliage photosynthetic potentials. g(m) was positively correlated with V(cmax) and J(max), and these correlations were stronger on a mass basis. Only g(m)/mass was negatively associated with M(A). CO(2) drawdown from substomatal cavities to chloroplasts (C(i)-C(C)) characterizing mesophyll CO(2) diffusion limitations was larger in leaves with greater M(A), lower g(m)/mass, and lower photosynthetic potentials. Relative limitation of A due to finite mesophyll diffusion conductance, i.e. 1-A(infinite g(m))/A(actual g(m)), was always >0.2 and up to 0.5 in leaves with most robust leaf structure, demonstrating the profound effect of finite g(m) on realized photosynthesis rates. Data from different sites were overlapping in bivariate relationships, and the variability of average values between the sites was less than among the species within the sites. Nevertheless, photosynthesis was more strongly limited by g(m) in low rain/high nutrient and high rain/low nutrient sites that supported vegetation with more sclerophyllous foliage. These data collectively highlight a strong relationship between leaf structure and g(m), and demonstrate that realized photosynthesis rates are strongly limited by g(m) in this highly sclerophyllous flora.
Impacts of trait variation through observed trait–climate relationships on performance of an Earth system model: a conceptual analysis
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 15-08-2013
Abstract: Abstract. In many current dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs), including those incorporated into Earth system models (ESMs), terrestrial vegetation is represented by a small number of plant functional types (PFTs), each with fixed properties irrespective of their predicted occurrence. This contrasts with natural vegetation, in which many plant traits vary systematically along geographic and environmental gradients. In the JSBACH DGVM, which is part of the MPI-ESM, we allowed three traits (specific leaf area (SLA), maximum carboxylation rate at 25 °C (Vcmax25) and maximum electron transport rate at 25 °C (Jmax25)) to vary within PFTs via trait–climate relationships based on a large trait database. The R2adjusted of these relationships were up to 0.83 and 0.71 for Vcmax25 and Jmax25, respectively. For SLA, more variance remained unexplained, with a maximum R2adjusted of 0.40. Compared to the default simulation, allowing trait variation within PFTs resulted in gross primary productivity differences of up to 50% in the tropics, in 35% different dominant vegetation cover, and a closer match with a natural vegetation map. The discrepancy between default trait values and natural trait variation, combined with the substantial changes in simulated vegetation properties, together emphasize that incorporating climate-driven trait variation, calibrated on observational data and based on ecological concepts, allows more variation in vegetation responses in DGVMs and as such is likely to enable more reliable projections in unknown climates.
Paleoclimate and current climate collectively shape the phylogenetic and functional diversity of trees worldwide
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 03-06-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.06.02.128975
Abstract: Trees are of vital importance for ecosystem functioning and services at local to global scales, yet we still lack a detailed overview of the global patterns of tree ersity and the underlying drivers, particularly the imprint of paleoclimate. Here, we present the high-resolution (110 km) worldwide mapping of tree species richness, functional and phylogenetic ersities based on ∼7 million quality-assessed occurrences for 46,752 tree species (80.5% of the estimated total number of tree species), and subsequent assessments of the influence of paleo-climate legacies on these patterns. All three tree ersity dimensions exhibited the expected latitudinal decline. Contemporary climate emerged as the strongest driver of all ersity patterns, with Pleistocene and deeper-time ( 7 years) paleoclimate as important co-determinants, and, notably, with past cold and drought stress being linked to reduced current ersity. These findings demonstrate that tree ersity is affected by paleoclimate millions of years back in time and highlight the potential for tree ersity losses from future climate change.
Evidence of a general 2/3-power law of scaling leaf nitrogen to phosphorus among major plant groups and biomes
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 11-11-2009
Abstract: Scaling relations among plant traits are both cause and consequence of processes at organ-to-ecosystem scales. The relationship between leaf nitrogen and phosphorus is of particular interest, as both elements are essential for plant metabolism their limited availabilities often constrain plant growth, and general relations between the two have been documented. Herein, we use a comprehensive dataset of more than 9300 observations of approximately 2500 species from 70 countries to examine the scaling of leaf nitrogen to phosphorus within and across taxonomical groups and biomes. Power law exponents derived from log–log scaling relations were near 2/3 for all observations pooled, for angiosperms and gymnosperms globally, and for angiosperms grouped by biomes, major functional groups, orders or families. The uniform 2/3 scaling of leaf nitrogen to leaf phosphorus exists along a parallel continuum of rising nitrogen, phosphorus, specific leaf area, photosynthesis and growth, as predicted by stoichiometric theory which posits that plants with high growth rates require both high allocation of phosphorus-rich RNA and a high metabolic rate to support the energy demands of macromolecular synthesis. The generality of this finding supports the view that this stoichiometric scaling relationship and the mechanisms that underpin it are foundational components of the living world. Additionally, although abundant variance exists within broad constraints, these results also support the idea that surprisingly simple rules regulate leaf form and function in terrestrial ecosystems.
Specific Leaf Area and Dry Matter Content Estimate Thickness in Laminar Leaves
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 13-09-2005
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCI264
Half of the world’s tree biodiversity is unprotected and is increasingly threatened by human activities
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 23-04-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.04.21.052464
Abstract: Although trees are key to ecosystem functioning, many forests and tree species across the globe face strong threats. Preserving areas of high bio ersity is a core priority for conservation however, different dimensions of bio ersity and varied conservation targets make it difficult to respond effectively to this challenge. Here, we ( i ) identify priority areas for global tree conservation using comprehensive coverage of tree ersity based on taxonomy, phylogeny, and functional traits and ( ii ) compare these findings to existing protected areas and global bio ersity conservation frameworks. We find that ca . 51% of the top-priority areas for tree bio ersity are located in current protected areas. The remaining half top-priority areas are subject to moderate to high human pressures, indicating conservation actions are needed to mitigate these human impacts. Our findings emphasize the effectiveness of using tree conservation priority areas for future global conservation planning.
Leaf-level coordination principles propagate to the ecosystem scale
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-07-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-023-39572-5
Abstract: Fundamental axes of variation in plant traits result from trade-offs between costs and benefits of resource-use strategies at the leaf scale. However, it is unclear whether similar trade-offs propagate to the ecosystem level. Here, we test whether trait correlation patterns predicted by three well-known leaf- and plant-level coordination theories – the leaf economics spectrum, the global spectrum of plant form and function, and the least-cost hypothesis – are also observed between community mean traits and ecosystem processes. We combined ecosystem functional properties from FLUXNET sites, vegetation properties, and community mean plant traits into three corresponding principal component analyses. We find that the leaf economics spectrum (90 sites), the global spectrum of plant form and function (89 sites), and the least-cost hypothesis (82 sites) all propagate at the ecosystem level. However, we also find evidence of additional scale-emergent properties. Evaluating the coordination of ecosystem functional properties may aid the development of more realistic global dynamic vegetation models with critical empirical data, reducing the uncertainty of climate change projections.
Leaf mechanical strength and photosynthetic capacity vary independently across 57 subtropical forest species with contrasting light requirements.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-04-2019
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.15803
Abstract: Leaf mechanical strength and photosynthetic capacity are critical plant life-history traits associated with tolerance and growth under various biotic and abiotic stresses. In principle, higher mechanical resistance achieved via higher relative allocation to cell walls should slow photosynthetic rates. However, interspecific relationships among these two leaf functions have not been reported. We measured leaf traits of 57 dominant woody species in a subtropical evergreen forest in China, focusing especially on photosynthetic rates, mechanical properties, and leaf lifespan (LLS). These species were assigned to two ecological strategy groups: shade-tolerant species and light-demanding species. On average, shade-tolerant species had longer LLS, higher leaf mechanical strength but lower photosynthetic rates, and exhibited longer LLS for a given leaf mass per area (LMA) or mechanical strength than light-demanding species. Depending on the traits and the basis of expression (per area or per mass), leaf mechanical resistance and photosynthetic capacity were either deemed unrelated, or only weakly negatively correlated. We found only weak support for the proposed trade-off between leaf biomechanics and photosynthesis among co-occurring woody species. This suggests there is considerable flexibility in these properties, and the observed relationships may result more so from trait coordination than any physically or physiologically enforced trade-off.
Rising CO2 and warming reduce global canopy demand for nitrogen
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-04-2022
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.18076
Abstract: Nitrogen (N) limitation has been considered as a constraint on terrestrial carbon uptake in response to rising CO 2 and climate change. By extension, it has been suggested that declining carboxylation capacity ( V cmax ) and leaf N content in enhanced‐CO 2 experiments and satellite records signify increasing N limitation of primary production. We predicted V cmax using the coordination hypothesis and estimated changes in leaf‐level photosynthetic N for 1982–2016 assuming proportionality with leaf‐level V cmax at 25°C. The whole‐canopy photosynthetic N was derived using satellite‐based leaf area index (LAI) data and an empirical extinction coefficient for V cmax , and converted to annual N demand using estimated leaf turnover times. The predicted spatial pattern of V cmax shares key features with an independent reconstruction from remotely sensed leaf chlorophyll content. Predicted leaf photosynthetic N declined by 0.27% yr −1 , while observed leaf (total) N declined by 0.2–0.25% yr −1 . Predicted global canopy N (and N demand) declined from 1996 onwards, despite increasing LAI. Leaf‐level responses to rising CO 2 , and to a lesser extent temperature, may have reduced the canopy requirement for N by more than rising LAI has increased it. This finding provides an alternative explanation for declining leaf N that does not depend on increasing N limitation.
PREDICTING LEAF PHYSIOLOGY FROM SIMPLE PLANT AND CLIMATE ATTRIBUTES: A GLOBAL GLOPNET ANALYSIS
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2007
DOI: 10.1890/06-1803.1
Abstract: Knowledge of leaf chemistry, physiology, and life span is essential for global vegetation modeling, but such data are scarce or lacking for some regions, especially in developing countries. Here we use data from 2021 species at 175 sites around the world from the GLOPNET compilation to show that key physiological traits that are difficult to measure (such as photosynthetic capacity) can be predicted from simple qualitative plant characteristics, climate information, easily measured ("soft") leaf traits, or all of these in combination. The qualitative plant functional type (PFT) attributes examined are phylogeny (angiosperm or gymnosperm), growth form (grass, herb, shrub, or tree), and leaf phenology (deciduous vs. evergreen). These three PFT attributes explain between one-third and two-thirds of the variation in each of five quantitative leaf ecophysiological traits: specific leaf area (SLA), leaf life span, mass-based net photosynthetic capacity (Amass), nitrogen content (N(mass)), and phosphorus content (P(mass)). Alternatively, the combination of four simple, widely available climate metrics (mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation, mean vapor pressure deficit, and solar irradiance) explain only 5-20% of the variation in those same five leaf traits. Adding the climate metrics to the qualitative PFTs as independent factors in the model increases explanatory power by 3-11% for the five traits. If a single easily measured leaf trait (SLA) is also included in the model along with qualitative plant traits and climate metrics, an additional 5-25% of the variation in the other four other leaf traits is explained, with the models accounting for 62%, 65%, 66%, and 73% of global variation in N(mass), P(mass), A(mass), and leaf life span, respectively. Given the wide availability of the summary climate data and qualitative PFT data used in these analyses, they could be used to explain roughly half of global variation in the less accessible leaf traits (A(mass), leaf life span, N(mass), P(mass)) this can be augmented to two-thirds of all variation if climatic and PFT data are used in combination with the readily measured trait SLA. This shows encouraging possibilities of progress in developing general predictive equations for macro-ecology, global scaling, and global modeling.
Relationships between soil nutrient status and nutrient-related leaf traits in Brazilian cerrado and seasonal forest communities
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-02-2016
Towards a thesaurus of plant characteristics: an ecological contribution
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-12-2016
Leaf trait variation is similar among genotypes of Eucalyptus camaldulensis from differing climates and arises in plastic responses to the seasons rather than water avai
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-05-2020
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.16579
The biogeography and filtering of woody plant functional diversity in North and South America
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-11-2011
Convergence towards higher leaf mass per area in dry and nutrient-poor habitats has different consequences for leaf life span
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-05-2002
Global climatic drivers of leaf size.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 09-2017
Abstract: Leaf size varies by over a 100,000-fold among species worldwide. Although 19th-century plant geographers noted that the wet tropics harbor plants with exceptionally large leaves, the latitudinal gradient of leaf size has not been well quantified nor the key climatic drivers convincingly identified. Here, we characterize worldwide patterns in leaf size. Large-leaved species predominate in wet, hot, sunny environments small-leaved species typify hot, sunny environments only in arid conditions small leaves are also found in high latitudes and elevations. By modeling the balance of leaf energy inputs and outputs, we show that daytime and nighttime leaf-to-air temperature differences are key to geographic gradients in leaf size. This knowledge can enrich "next-generation" vegetation models in which leaf temperature and water use during photosynthesis play key roles.
Scaling up flammability from individual leaves to fuel beds
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-04-2017
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.03886
ETIB-T
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-11-2023
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.14526
Abstract: The Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography (ETIB) posits that species richness on islands represents a dynamic equilibrium between immigration and extinction. ETIB makes predictions about numbers of species and biogeographical rates, but not about species identities or functional traits. However, functional traits provide additional information in understanding the assembly of island biotas. Here, we build on ETIB's principle of community equilibria and investigate how these processes affect plant functional traits over time. Fifteen islands from 164 m 2 to 19 km 2 in Western Australia. Angiosperms. We assembled an island‐trait dataset linking seed mass, plant height and leaf area of 156 species to their occurrences on 15 islands s led four times within four decades. We estimated community trait means and functional ersity for each island and s ling period and tested whether both remained at equilibrium over time. Using linear models, we tested whether temporal species turnover is linked to specific traits. We used generalised linear mixed‐effect models to test for the effect of environmental characteristics on species and trait turnover. Species richness on the islands was at equilibrium as predicted by ETIB despite high species temporal turnover. Functional ersity and community trait means also were stable over time. Species most susceptible to turnover were on average smaller and had lower seed mass than persisting species. Environmental island characteristics had no strong effect in explaining species and trait turnover. We provide evidence that ETIB can be extended to functional traits, which we suggest to term Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography for Traits . Trait equilibria on islands suggest that locally extinct species are replaced by new ones sharing similar traits. Being small with light seeds increases both immigration probability and extinction risk.
Leaf nitrogen from first principles: field evidence for adaptive variation with climate
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 30-01-2017
Abstract: 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 increases in ci : ca and temperature because the amount of Rubisco required to achieve a given assimilation rate declines with increases in both. We tested these predictions using LMA, leaf δ13C, and leaf N measurements on complete species assemblages s led 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), and the other to Rubisco capacity as predicted by the co-ordination hypothesis. 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. Coupled carbon–nitrogen models require a method to predict Narea that is more realistic than the widespread assumptions that Narea is proportional to photosynthetic capacity, and/or that Narea (and photosynthetic capacity) are determined by N supply from the soil. 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 finding is consistent with a plant-centred approach to modelling, emphasizing the adaptive regulation of traits. Models that account for bio ersity will also need to partition community-level trait variation into components due to phenotypic plasticity and/or genotypic differentiation within species vs. progressive species replacement, along environmental gradients. Our analysis suggests that variation in Narea is about evenly split between these two modes.
Controls on declining carbon balance with leaf age among 10 woody species in Australian woodland
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-06-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2009.02824.X
Abstract: DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02888.x Commentary p 1
A global analysis of water and nitrogen relationships between mistletoes and their hosts: broad‐scale tests of old and enduring hypotheses
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-03-2015
Global patterns of leaf mechanical properties
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-01-2011
DOI: 10.1111/J.1461-0248.2010.01582.X
Abstract: Leaf mechanical properties strongly influence leaf lifespan, plant-herbivore interactions, litter decomposition and nutrient cycling, but global patterns in their interspecific variation and underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. We synthesize data across the three major measurement methods, permitting the first global analyses of leaf mechanics and associated traits, for 2819 species from 90 sites worldwide. Key measures of leaf mechanical resistance varied c. 500-800-fold among species. Contrary to a long-standing hypothesis, tropical leaves were not mechanically more resistant than temperate leaves. Leaf mechanical resistance was modestly related to rainfall and local light environment. By partitioning leaf mechanical resistance into three different components we discovered that toughness per density contributed a surprisingly large fraction to variation in mechanical resistance, larger than the fractions contributed by lamina thickness and tissue density. Higher toughness per density was associated with long leaf lifespan especially in forest understory. Seldom appreciated in the past, toughness per density is a key factor in leaf mechanical resistance, which itself influences plant-animal interactions and ecosystem functions across the globe.
The leaf size – twig size spectrum and its relationship to other important spectra of variation among species
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-03-2003
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-003-1231-6
Abstract: There is a spectrum from species with narrow, frequently branched twigs carrying small leaves and other appendages, to species with thick twigs carrying large leaves and appendages. Here we investigate the allometry of this spectrum and its relationship to two other important spectra of ecological variation between species, the seed mass-seed output spectrum and the specific leaf area-leaf lifespan spectrum. Our main dataset covered 33 woody dicotyledonous species in sclerophyll fire-prone vegetation on low nutrient soil at 1,200 mm annual rainfall near Sydney, Australia. These were phylogenetically selected to contribute 32 evolutionary ergences. Two smaller datasets, from 390 mm annual rainfall, were also examined to assess generality of cross-species patterns. There was two to three orders of magnitude variation in twig cross-sectional area, in idual leaf size and total leaf area supported on a twig across the study species. As expected, species with thicker twigs had larger leaves and branched less often than species with thin twigs. Total leaf area supported on a twig was mainly driven by leaf size rather than by the number of leaves. Total leaf area was strongly correlated with twig cross-section area, both across present-day species and across evolutionary ergences. The common log-log slope of 1.45 was significantly steeper than 1. Thus on average, species with tenfold larger leaves supported about threefold more leaf area per twig cross-section, which must have considerable implications for other aspects of water relations. Species at the low rainfall site on loamy sand supported about half as much leaf area, at a given twig cross-section, as species at the low rainfall site on light clay, or at the high rainfall site. Within sites, leaf and twig size were positively correlated with seed mass, and negatively correlated with specific leaf area. Identifying and understanding leading spectra of ecological variation among species is an important challenge for plant ecology. The seed mass-seed output and specific leaf area-leaf lifespan spectra are each underpinned by a single, comprehensible trade-off and their consequences are fairly well understood. The leaf-size-twig-size spectrum has obvious consequences for the texture of canopies, but we are only just beginning to understand the costs and benefits of large versus small leaf and twig size.
Palaeo leaf economics reveal a shift in ecosystem function associated with the end-Triassic mass extinction event
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-07-2017
Abstract: Climate change is likely to have altered the ecological functioning of past ecosystems, and is likely to alter functioning in the future however, the magnitude and direction of such changes are difficult to predict. Here we use a deep-time case study to evaluate the impact of a well-constrained CO
Volatile isoprenoid emissions from plastid to planet
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-11-2012
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.12021
Abstract: Approximately 1–2% of net primary production by land plants is re‐emitted to the atmosphere as isoprene and monoterpenes. These emissions play major roles in atmospheric chemistry and air pollution–climate interactions. Phenomenological models have been developed to predict their emission rates, but limited understanding of the function and regulation of these emissions has led to large uncertainties in model projections of air quality and greenhouse gas concentrations. We synthesize recent advances in erse fields, from cell physiology to atmospheric remote sensing, and use this information to propose a simple conceptual model of volatile isoprenoid emission based on regulation of metabolism in the chloroplast. This may provide a robust foundation for scaling up emissions from the cellular to the global scale.
The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-12-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-022-01774-9
Abstract: Here we provide the ‘Global Spectrum of Plant Form and Function Dataset’, containing species mean values for six vascular plant traits. Together, these traits –plant height, stem specific density, leaf area, leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen content per dry mass, and diaspore (seed or spore) mass – define the primary axes of variation in plant form and function. The dataset is based on ca. 1 million trait records received via the TRY database (representing ca. 2,500 original publications) and additional unpublished data. It provides 92,159 species mean values for the six traits, covering 46,047 species. The data are complemented by higher-level taxonomic classification and six categorical traits (woodiness, growth form, succulence, adaptation to terrestrial or aquatic habitats, nutrition type and leaf type). Data quality management is based on a probabilistic approach combined with comprehensive validation against expert knowledge and external information. Intense data acquisition and thorough quality control produced the largest and, to our knowledge, most accurate compilation of empirically observed vascular plant species mean traits to date.
Fossil leaf economics quantified: calibration, Eocene case study, and implications
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 12-2007
DOI: 10.1666/07001.1
Eco‐evolutionary optimality as a means to improve vegetation and land‐surface models
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-07-2021
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.17558
Abstract: Global vegetation and land‐surface models embody interdisciplinary scientific understanding of the behaviour of plants and ecosystems, and are indispensable to project the impacts of environmental change on vegetation and the interactions between vegetation and climate. However, systematic errors and persistently large differences among carbon and water cycle projections by different models highlight the limitations of current process formulations. In this review, focusing on core plant functions in the terrestrial carbon and water cycles, we show how unifying hypotheses derived from eco‐evolutionary optimality (EEO) principles can provide novel, parameter‐sparse representations of plant and vegetation processes. We present case studies that demonstrate how EEO generates parsimonious representations of core, leaf‐level processes that are in idually testable and supported by evidence. EEO approaches to photosynthesis and primary production, dark respiration and stomatal behaviour are ripe for implementation in global models. EEO approaches to other important traits, including the leaf economics spectrum and applications of EEO at the community level are active research areas. Independently tested modules emerging from EEO studies could profitably be integrated into modelling frameworks that account for the multiple time scales on which plants and plant communities adjust to environmental change.
The validity of optimal leaf traits modelled on environmental conditions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-10-2019
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.15495
Abstract: The ratio of leaf intercellular to ambient CO
Physiological trait networks enhance understanding of crop growth and water use in contrasting environments
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-07-2022
DOI: 10.1111/PCE.14382
Abstract: Plant function arises from a complex network of structural and physiological traits. Explicit representation of these traits, as well as their connections with other biophysical processes, is required to advance our understanding of plant‐soil‐climate interactions. We used the Terrestrial Regional Ecosystem Exchange Simulator (TREES) to evaluate physiological trait networks in maize. Net primary productivity (NPP) and grain yield were simulated across five contrasting climate scenarios. Simulations achieving high NPP and grain yield in high precipitation environments featured trait networks conferring high water use strategies: deep roots, high stomatal conductance at low water potential (“risky” stomatal regulation), high xylem hydraulic conductivity and high maximal leaf area index. In contrast, high NPP and grain yield was achieved in dry environments with low late‐season precipitation via water conserving trait networks: deep roots, high embolism resistance and low stomatal conductance at low leaf water potential (“conservative” stomatal regulation). We suggest that our approach, which allows for the simultaneous evaluation of physiological traits, soil characteristics and their interactions (i.e., networks), has potential to improve our understanding of crop performance in different environments. In contrast, evaluating single traits in isolation of other coordinated traits does not appear to be an effective strategy for predicting plant performance.
Scaling-up from leaf to canopy-aggregate properties in sclerophyll shrub species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-04-2006
A survey of leaf phosphorus fractions and leaf economic traits among 12 co-occurring woody species on phosphorus-impoverished soils
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-04-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S11104-023-06001-X
Abstract: The leaf economic spectrum (LES) is related to dry mass and nutrient investments towards photosynthetic processes and leaf structures, and to the duration of returns on those investments (leaf lifespan, LL). Phosphorus (P) is a key limiting nutrient for plant growth, yet it is unclear how the allocation of leaf P among different functions is coordinated with the LES. We addressed this question among 12 evergreen woody species co-occurring on P-impoverished soils in south-eastern Australia. Leaf ‘economic’ traits, including LL, leaf mass per area (LMA), light-saturated net photosynthetic rate per mass (A mass ), dark respiration rate, P concentration ([P total ]), nitrogen concentration, and P resorption, were measured for three pioneer and nine non-pioneer species. Leaf P was separated into five functional fractions: orthophosphate P (P i ), metabolite P (P M ), nucleic acid P (P N ), lipid P (P L ), and residual P (P R phosphorylated proteins and unidentified compounds that contain P). LL was negatively correlated with A mass and positively correlated with LMA, representing the LES. Pioneers occurred towards the short-LL end of the spectrum and exhibited higher [P total ] than non-pioneer species, primarily associated with higher concentrations of P i , P N and P L . There were no significant correlations between leaf P fractions and LL or LMA, while A mass was positively correlated with the concentration of P R . Allocation of leaf P to different fractions varied substantially among species. This variation was partially associated with the LES, which may provide a mechanism underlying co-occurrence of species with different ecological strategies under P limitation.
Broad anatomical variation within a narrow wood density range
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 23-04-2015
Growing‐season temperature and precipitation are independent drivers of global variation in xylem hydraulic conductivity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-12-2019
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14929
Abstract: Stem xylem‐specific hydraulic conductivity ( K S ) represents the potential for plant water transport normalized by xylem cross section, length, and driving force. Variation in K S has implications for plant transpiration and photosynthesis, growth and survival, and also the geographic distribution of species. Clarifying the global‐scale patterns of K S and its major drivers is needed to achieve a better understanding of how plants adapt to different environmental conditions, particularly under climate change scenarios. Here, we compiled a xylem hydraulics dataset with 1,186 species‐at‐site combinations (975 woody species representing 146 families, from 199 sites worldwide), and investigated how K S varied with climatic variables, plant functional types, and biomes. Growing‐season temperature and growing‐season precipitation drove global variation in K S independently. Both the mean and the variation in K S were highest in the warm and wet tropical regions, and lower in cold and dry regions, such as tundra and desert biomes. Our results suggest that future warming and redistribution of seasonal precipitation may have a significant impact on species functional ersity, and is likely to be particularly important in regions becoming warmer or drier, such as high latitudes. This highlights an important role for K S in predicting shifts in community composition in the face of climate change.
Connecting the Green and Brown Worlds
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2013
Functional distinctiveness of major plant lineages
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-02-2014
FUNDAMENTAL TRADE-OFFS GENERATING THE WORLDWIDE LEAF ECONOMICS SPECTRUM
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2006
DOI: 10.1890/05-1051
Abstract: Recent work has identified a worldwide "economic" spectrum of correlated leaf traits that affects global patterns of nutrient cycling and primary productivity and that is used to calibrate vegetation-climate models. The correlation patterns are displayed by species from the arctic to the tropics and are largely independent of growth form or phylogeny. This generality suggests that unidentified fundamental constraints control the return of photosynthates on investments of nutrients and dry mass in leaves. Using novel graph theoretic methods and structural equation modeling, we show that the relationships among these variables can best be explained by assuming (1) a necessary trade-off between allocation to structural tissues versus liquid phase processes and (2) an evolutionary tradeoff between leaf photosynthetic rates, construction costs, and leaf longevity.
Diffusional conductances to CO2 as a target for increasing photosynthesis and photosynthetic water-use efficiency
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-05-2013
DOI: 10.1007/S11120-013-9844-Z
Abstract: A key objective for sustainable agriculture and forestry is to breed plants with both high carbon gain and water-use efficiency (WUE). At the level of leaf physiology, this implies increasing net photosynthesis (A N) relative to stomatal conductance (g s). Here, we review evidence for CO2 diffusional constraints on photosynthesis and WUE. Analyzing past observations for an extensive pool of crop and wild plant species that vary widely in mesophyll conductance to CO2 (g m), g s, and foliage A N, it was shown that both g s and g m limit A N, although the relative importance of each of the two conductances depends on species and conditions. Based on Fick's law of diffusion, intrinsic WUE (the ratio A N/g s) should correlate on the ratio g m/g s, and not g m itself. Such a correlation is indeed often observed in the data. However, since besides diffusion A N also depends on photosynthetic capacity (i.e., V c,max), this relationship is not always sustained. It was shown that only in a very few cases, genotype selection has resulted in simultaneous increases of both A N and WUE. In fact, such a response has never been observed in genetically modified plants specifically engineered for either reduced g s or enhanced g m. Although increasing g m alone would result in increasing photosynthesis, and potentially increasing WUE, in practice, higher WUE seems to be only achieved when there are no parallel changes in g s. We conclude that for simultaneous improvement of A N and WUE, genetic manipulation of g m should avoid parallel changes in g s, and we suggest that the appropriate trait for selection for enhanced WUE is increased g m/g s.
High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 16-06-2022
Abstract: Safeguarding Earth’s tree ersity is a conservation priority due to the importance of trees for bio ersity and ecosystem functions and services such as carbon sequestration. Here, we improve the foundation for effective conservation of global tree ersity by analyzing a recently developed database of tree species covering 46,752 species. We quantify range protection and anthropogenic pressures for each species and develop conservation priorities across taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional ersity dimensions. We also assess the effectiveness of several influential proposed conservation prioritization frameworks to protect the top 17% and top 50% of tree priority areas. We find that an average of 50.2% of a tree species’ range occurs in 110-km grid cells without any protected areas (PAs), with 6,377 small-range tree species fully unprotected, and that 83% of tree species experience nonnegligible human pressure across their range on average. Protecting high-priority areas for the top 17% and 50% priority thresholds would increase the average protected proportion of each tree species’ range to 65.5% and 82.6%, respectively, leaving many fewer species (2,151 and 2,010) completely unprotected. The priority areas identified for trees match well to the Global 200 Ecoregions framework, revealing that priority areas for trees would in large part also optimize protection for terrestrial bio ersity overall. Based on range estimates for ,000 tree species, our findings show that a large proportion of tree species receive limited protection by current PAs and are under substantial human pressure. Improved protection of bio ersity overall would also strongly benefit global tree ersity.
Global patterns of foliar nitrogen isotopes and their relationships with climate, mycorrhizal fungi, foliar nutrient concentrations, and nitrogen availability
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-08-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2009.02917.X
Abstract: Ratios of nitrogen (N) isotopes in leaves could elucidate underlying patterns of N cycling across ecological gradients. To better understand global‐scale patterns of N cycling, we compiled data on foliar N isotope ratios (δ 15 N), foliar N concentrations, mycorrhizal type and climate for over 11 000 plants worldwide. Arbuscular mycorrhizal, ectomycorrhizal, and ericoid mycorrhizal plants were depleted in foliar δ 15 N by 2‰, 3.2‰, 5.9‰, respectively, relative to nonmycorrhizal plants. Foliar δ 15 N increased with decreasing mean annual precipitation and with increasing mean annual temperature (MAT) across sites with MAT ≥ −0.5°C, but was invariant with MAT across sites with MAT −0.5°C. In independent landscape‐level to regional‐level studies, foliar δ 15 N increased with increasing N availability at the global scale, foliar δ 15 N increased with increasing foliar N concentrations and decreasing foliar phosphorus (P) concentrations. Together, these results suggest that warm, dry ecosystems have the highest N availability, while plants with high N concentrations, on average, occupy sites with higher N availability than plants with low N concentrations. Global‐scale comparisons of other components of the N cycle are still required for better mechanistic understanding of the determinants of variation in foliar δ 15 N and ultimately global patterns in N cycling.
Cross-species relationships between seedling relative growth rate, nitrogen productivity and root vs leaf function in 28 Australian woody species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2000
The Open Traits Network: Using Open Science principles to accelerate trait-based science across the Tree of Life
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 11-04-2019
Abstract: Synthesising trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for bio ersity science. Despite the well-recognised importance of traits for addressing ecological and evolutionary questions, trait-based approaches still struggle with several basic data requirements to deliver openly accessible, reproducible, and transparent science. Here, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN) – a decentralised alliance of international researchers and institutions focused on collaborative integration and standardisation of the exponentially increasing availability of trait data across all organisms. The OTN embraces the use of Open Science principles in trait research, particularly open data, open source, and open methodology protocols and workflows, to accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life. Increased efforts at all levels – from in idual scientists, research networks, scientific societies, funding agencies, to publishers – are necessary to fully exploit the opportunities offered by Open Science in trait research. Democratising access to data, tools and resources will facilitate rapid advances in the biological sciences and our ability to address pressing environmental and societal demands.
Causes and consequences of variation in leaf mass per area (LMA): a meta‐analysis
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-04-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2009.02830.X
Abstract: Here, we analysed a wide range of literature data on the leaf dry mass per unit area (LMA). In nature, LMA varies more than 100‐fold among species. Part of this variation ( c . 35%) can be ascribed to differences between functional groups, with evergreen species having the highest LMA, but most of the variation is within groups or biomes. When grown in the same controlled environment, leaf succulents and woody evergreen, perennial or slow‐growing species have inherently high LMA. Within most of the functional groups studied, high‐LMA species show higher leaf tissue densities. However, differences between evergreen and deciduous species result from larger volumes per area (thickness). Response curves constructed from experiments under controlled conditions showed that LMA varied strongly with light, temperature and submergence, moderately with CO 2 concentration and nutrient and water stress, and marginally under most other conditions. Functional groups differed in the plasticity of LMA to these gradients. The physiological regulation is still unclear, but the consequences of variation in LMA and the suite of traits interconnected with it are strong. This trait complex is an important factor determining the fitness of species in their environment and affects various ecosystem processes. Contents Summary 565 I. LMA in perspective 566 II. LMA in the field 567 III. Inherent differences 568 IV. Relation with anatomy and chemical composition 570 V. Environmental effects 572 VI. Differences in space and time 577 VII. Molecular regulation and physiology 579 VIII. Ecological consequences 580 IX. Conclusions and perspectives 582 Acknowledgements 582 References 582 Appendices 587
How do functional traits influence tree demographic properties in a subtropical monsoon forest?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-10-2022
Abstract: Functional traits are good predictors of plant responses and adaptations to ever‐changing environments. However, forecasting forest community dynamics is challenging because the relationships among different tree demographic properties (growth, mortality and recruitment) and how functional traits are associated with tree demography remain largely unknown. Here, in a 20‐ha subtropical forest permanent plot, we quantified the rates of tree growth, mortality and recruitment across 53 dominant tree species (diameter at breast height DBH ≥ 1 cm) from 2005 to 2020. Functional traits that are closely related to plant photosynthesis, nutrients, hydraulics and drought tolerance were measured. We found that tree growth rate (GR) varied independently from rates of tree mortality and recruitment. Hydraulic conductivity was positively correlated with GR (explaining 27% variation—the strongest relationship observed) whereas wood density was negatively correlated with GR. Leaf life span was negatively related to tree mortality. Species with high carbon assimilation rate, nutrient concentration and hydraulic conductivity had high recruitment rates. Leaf turgor loss point was unrelated to plant demography. Principal component analysis revealed that species with quick resource acquisition rates had high rates of growth and recruitment. Our results illustrate that the correlations among tree demographic properties were weak in this subtropical forest with monsoonal climate. Most notably, against expectations, there was no observed trade‐off between growth and mortality. In idual functional traits explained up to 27% of each demographic rate. Variation in recruitment rate was aligned with traits indexing the leaf economic spectrum and also plant hydraulic variation. A better understanding of the role of disturbances on trait–demography relationships would help build a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the ecology of subtropical monsoon forests. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Effects of plant hydraulic traits on the flammability of live fine canopy fuels
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-02-2021
Incorporation of plant traits in a land surface model helps explain the global biogeographical distribution of major forest functional types
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-11-2016
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12535
Parenchyma abundance in wood of evergreen trees varies independently of nutrients
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 19-02-2020
Irradiance, temperature and rainfall influence leaf dark respiration in woody plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-11-2006
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2005.01590.X
Abstract: Leaf dark respiration (R) is one of the most fundamental physiological processes in plants and is a major component of terrestrial CO2 input to the atmosphere. Still, it is unclear how predictably species vary in R along broad climate gradients. Data for R and other key leaf traits were compiled for 208 woody species from 20 sites around the world. We quantified relationships between R and site climate, and climate-related variation in relationships between R and other leaf traits. Species at higher-irradiance sites had higher mean R at a given leaf N concentration, specific leaf area (SLA), photosynthetic capacity (Amass) or leaf lifespan than species at lower-irradiance sites. Species at lower-rainfall sites had higher mean R at a given SLA or Amass than species at higher-rainfall sites. On average, estimated field rates of R were higher at warmer sites, while no trend with site temperature was seen when R was adjusted to a standard measurement temperature. Our findings should prove useful for modelling plant nutrient and carbon budgets, and for modelling vegetation shifts with climate change.
Burn or rot: leaf traits explain why flammability and decomposability are decoupled across species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2015
Assessing the vulnerability of plant functional trait strategies to climate change
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-04-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13501
Abstract: Our ability to understand how species may respond to changing climate conditions is h ered by a lack of high‐quality data on the adaptive capacity of species. Plant functional traits are linked to many aspects of species life history and adaptation to environment, with different combinations of trait values reflecting alternate strategies for adapting to varied conditions. If the realized climate limits of species can be partially explained by plant functional trait combinations, then a new approach of using trait combinations to predict the expected climate limits of species trait combinations may offer considerable benefits. Australia. Current and future. Using trait data for leaf size, seed mass and plant height for 6,747 Australian native species from 27 plant families, we model the expected climate limits of trait combinations and use future climate scenarios to estimate climate change impacts based on plant functional trait strategies. Functional trait combinations were a significant predictor of species climate niche metrics with potentially meaningful relationships with two rainfall variables ( R 2 = .36 & .45) and three temperature variables ( R 2 = .21, .28, .30). Using this method, the proportion of species exposed to conditions across their range that are beyond the expected climate limits of their trait strategies will increase under climate change. Our new approach, called trait strategy vulnerability, includes three new metrics. For ex le, the climate change vulnerability (CCV) metric identified a small but important proportion of species (4.3%) that will on average be exposed to conditions beyond their expected limits for summer temperature in the future. These potentially vulnerable species could be high priority targets for deeper assessment of adaptive capacity at the genomic or physiological level. Our methods can be applied to any suite of co‐occurring plants globally.
Short Communication: Leaf trait relationships in Australian plant species
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2004
DOI: 10.1071/FP03212
Abstract: Leaf trait data were compiled for 258 Australian plant species from several habitat types dominated by woody perennials. Specific leaf area (SLA), photosynthetic capacity, dark respiration rate and leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations were positively correlated with one another and negatively correlated with average leaf lifespan. These trait relationships were consistent with previous results from global datasets. Together, these traits form a spectrum of variation running from species with cheap but frequently replaced leaves to those with strategies more attuned to a nutrient-conserving lifestyle. Australian species tended to have SLAs at the lower end of the spectrum, as expected in a dataset dominated by sclerophyllous species from low fertility or low rainfall sites. The existence of broad-scale, 'global' relationships does not imply that the same trait relationships will always be observed in small datasets. In particular, the probability of observing concordant patterns depends on the range of trait variation in a dataset, which, itself, may vary with s le size or species-s ling properties such as the range of growth forms, plant functional 'types', or taxa included in a particular study. The considerable scatter seen in these broad-scale trait relationships may be associated with climate, physiology and phylogeny.
Physiological and structural tradeoffs underlying the leaf economics spectrum
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-03-2017
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.14496
Abstract: The leaf economics spectrum ( LES ) represents a suite of intercorrelated leaf traits concerning construction costs per unit leaf area, nutrient concentrations, and rates of carbon fixation and tissue turnover. Although broad trade‐offs among leaf structural and physiological traits have been demonstrated, we still do not have a comprehensive view of the fundamental constraints underlying the LES trade‐offs. Here, we investigated physiological and structural mechanisms underpinning the LES by analysing a novel data compilation incorporating rarely considered traits such as the dry mass fraction in cell walls, nitrogen allocation, mesophyll CO 2 diffusion and associated anatomical traits for hundreds of species covering major growth forms. The analysis demonstrates that cell wall constituents are major components of leaf dry mass (18–70%), especially in leaves with high leaf mass per unit area ( LMA ) and long lifespan. A greater fraction of leaf mass in cell walls is typically associated with a lower fraction of leaf nitrogen (N) invested in photosynthetic proteins and lower within‐leaf CO 2 diffusion rates, as a result of thicker mesophyll cell walls. The costs associated with greater investments in cell walls underpin the LES : long leaf lifespans are achieved via higher LMA and in turn by higher cell wall mass fraction, but this inevitably reduces the efficiency of photosynthesis.
A meta‐analysis of responses of C3 plants to atmospheric CO2: dose–response curves for 85 traits ranging from the molecular to the whole‐plant level
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-11-2021
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.17802
Abstract: Generalised dose–response curves are essential to understand how plants acclimate to atmospheric CO 2 . We carried out a meta‐analysis of 630 experiments in which C 3 plants were experimentally grown at different [CO 2 ] under relatively benign conditions, and derived dose–response curves for 85 phenotypic traits. These curves were characterised by form, plasticity, consistency and reliability. Considered over a range of 200–1200 µmol mol −1 CO 2 , some traits more than doubled (e.g. area‐based photosynthesis intrinsic water‐use efficiency), whereas others more than halved (area‐based transpiration). At current atmospheric [CO 2 ], 64% of the total stimulation in biomass over the 200–1200 µmol mol −1 range has already been realised. We also mapped the trait responses of plants to [CO 2 ] against those we have quantified before for light intensity. For most traits, CO 2 and light responses were of similar direction. However, some traits (such as reproductive effort) only responded to light, others (such as plant height) only to [CO 2 ], and some traits (such as area‐based transpiration) responded in opposite directions. This synthesis provides a comprehensive picture of plant responses to [CO 2 ] at different integration levels and offers the quantitative dose–response curves that can be used to improve global change simulation models.
A continental-scale assessment of variability in leaf traits: Within species, across sites and between seasons
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-04-2018
Cross-species patterns in the coordination between leaf and stem traits, and their implications for plant hydraulics
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2006
Strategy shifts in leaf physiology, structure and nutrient content between species of high- and low-rainfall and high- and low-nutrient habitats
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2001
Developing a spectral disease index for myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii)
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-02-2019
DOI: 10.1111/PPA.12996
Components of leaf‐trait variation along environmental gradients
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-04-2020
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.16558
Towards a New Generation of Trait-Flexible Vegetation Models
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2020
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2019.11.006
Abstract: Plant trait variability, emerging from eco-evolutionary dynamics that range from alleles to macroecological scales, is one of the most elusive, but possibly most consequential, aspects of bio ersity. Plasticity, epigenetics, and genetic ersity are major determinants of how plants will respond to climate change, yet these processes are rarely represented in current vegetation models. Here, we provide an overview of the challenges associated with understanding the causes and consequences of plant trait variability, and review current developments to include plasticity and evolutionary mechanisms in vegetation models. We also present a roadmap of research priorities to develop a next generation of vegetation models with flexible traits. Including trait variability in vegetation models is necessary to better represent biosphere responses to global change.
Differences in seedling growth behaviour among species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 1999
Anatomical basis of variation in mesophyll resistance in eastern Australian sclerophylls
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 29-08-2012
DOI: 10.1093/JXB/ERS171
Photosynthetic differences contribute to competitive advantage of evergreen angiosperm trees over evergreen conifers in productive habitats
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-10-2003
Global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-2012
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE11688
Abstract: Shifts in rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures associated with climate change are likely to cause widespread forest decline in regions where droughts are predicted to increase in duration and severity. One primary cause of productivity loss and plant mortality during drought is hydraulic failure. Drought stress creates trapped gas emboli in the water transport system, which reduces the ability of plants to supply water to leaves for photosynthetic gas exchange and can ultimately result in desiccation and mortality. At present we lack a clear picture of how thresholds to hydraulic failure vary across a broad range of species and environments, despite many in idual experiments. Here we draw together published and unpublished data on the vulnerability of the transport system to drought-induced embolism for a large number of woody species, with a view to examining the likely consequences of climate change for forest biomes. We show that 70% of 226 forest species from 81 sites worldwide operate with narrow (<1 megapascal) hydraulic safety margins against injurious levels of drought stress and therefore potentially face long-term reductions in productivity and survival if temperature and aridity increase as predicted for many regions across the globe. Safety margins are largely independent of mean annual precipitation, showing that there is global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought, with all forest biomes equally vulnerable to hydraulic failure regardless of their current rainfall environment. These findings provide insight into why drought-induced forest decline is occurring not only in arid regions but also in wet forests not normally considered at drought risk.
Why are non-photosynthetic tissues generally 13C enriched compared with leaves in C3 plants? Review and synthesis of current hypotheses
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1071/FP08216
Abstract: Non-photosynthetic, or heterotrophic, tissues in C3 plants tend to be enriched in 13C compared with the leaves that supply them with photosynthate. This isotopic pattern has been observed for woody stems, roots, seeds and fruits, emerging leaves, and parasitic plants incapable of net CO2 fixation. Unlike in C3 plants, roots of herbaceous C4 plants are generally not 13C-enriched compared with leaves. We review six hypotheses aimed at explaining this isotopic pattern in C3 plants: (1) variation in biochemical composition of heterotrophic tissues compared with leaves (2) seasonal separation of growth of leaves and heterotrophic tissues, with corresponding variation in photosynthetic discrimination against 13C (3) differential use of day v. night sucrose between leaves and sink tissues, with day sucrose being relatively 13C-depleted and night sucrose 13C-enriched (4) isotopic fractionation during dark respiration (5) carbon fixation by PEP carboxylase and (6) developmental variation in photosynthetic discrimination against 13C during leaf expansion. Although hypotheses (1) and (2) may contribute to the general pattern, they cannot explain all observations. Some evidence exists in support of hypotheses (3) through to (6), although for hypothesis (6) it is largely circumstantial. Hypothesis (3) provides a promising avenue for future research. Direct tests of these hypotheses should be carried out to provide insight into the mechanisms causing within-plant variation in carbon isotope composition.
Climate and soils together regulate photosynthetic carbon isotope discrimination within C3 plants worldwide
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2018
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12764
Which is a better predictor of plant traits: temperature or precipitation?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-05-2014
DOI: 10.1111/JVS.12190
Towards a universal model for carbon dioxide uptake by plants
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-09-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41477-017-0006-8
Abstract: Gross primary production (GPP)-the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO
Leaf trait covariation and controls on leaf mass per area (LMA) following cotton domestication
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 16-07-2022
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCAC086
Abstract: The process of domestication has driven dramatic shifts in plant functional traits, including leaf mass per area (LMA). It remains unclear whether domestication has produced concerted shifts in the lower-level anatomical traits that underpin LMA and how these traits in turn affect photosynthesis. In this study we investigated controls of LMA and leaf gas exchange by leaf anatomical properties at the cellular, tissue and whole-leaf levels, comparing 26 wild and 31 domesticated genotypes of cotton (Gossypium). As expected, domesticated plants expressed lower LMA, higher photosynthesis and higher stomatal conductance, suggesting a shift towards the ‘faster’ end of the leaf economics spectrum. At whole-leaf level, variation in LMA was predominantly determined by leaf density (LD) both in wild and domesticated genotypes. At tissue level, higher leaf volume per area (Vleaf) in domesticated genotypes was driven by a simultaneous increase in the volume of epidermal, mesophyll and vascular bundle tissue and airspace, while lower LD resulted from a lower volume of palisade tissue and vascular bundles (which are of high density), paired with a greater volume of epidermis and airspace, which are of low density. The volume of spongy mesophyll exerted direct control on photosynthesis in domesticated genotypes but only indirect control in wild genotypes. At cellular level, a shift to larger but less numerous cells with thinner cell walls underpinned a lower proportion of cell wall mass, and thus a reduction in LD. Taken together, cotton domestication has triggered synergistic shifts in the underlying determinants of LMA but also photosynthesis, at cell, tissue and whole-leaf levels, resulting in a marked shift in plant ecological strategy.
Assessing the generality of global leaf trait relationships
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-02-2005
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2005.01349.X
Abstract: Global-scale quantification of relationships between plant traits gives insight into the evolution of the world's vegetation, and is crucial for parameterizing vegetation-climate models. A database was compiled, comprising data for hundreds to thousands of species for the core 'leaf economics' traits leaf lifespan, leaf mass per area, photosynthetic capacity, dark respiration, and leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, as well as leaf potassium, photosynthetic N-use efficiency (PNUE), and leaf N : P ratio. While mean trait values differed between plant functional types, the range found within groups was often larger than differences among them. Future vegetation-climate models could incorporate this knowledge. The core leaf traits were intercorrelated, both globally and within plant functional types, forming a 'leaf economics spectrum'. While these relationships are very general, they are not universal, as significant heterogeneity exists between relationships fitted to in idual sites. Much, but not all, heterogeneity can be explained by variation in s le size alone. PNUE can also be considered as part of this trait spectrum, whereas leaf K and N : P ratios are only loosely related.
Relationships Among Ecologically Important Dimensions of Plant Trait Variation in Seven Neotropical Forests
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 04-04-2006
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCL066
Coordination of plant hydraulic and photosynthetic traits: confronting optimality theory with field measurements
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-08-2021
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.17656
Abstract: Close coupling between water loss and carbon dioxide uptake requires coordination of plant hydraulics and photosynthesis. However, there is still limited information on the quantitative relationships between hydraulic and photosynthetic traits. We propose a basis for these relationships based on optimality theory, and test its predictions by analysis of measurements on 107 species from 11 sites, distributed along a nearly 3000‐m elevation gradient. Hydraulic and leaf economic traits were less plastic, and more closely associated with phylogeny, than photosynthetic traits. The two sets of traits were linked by the sapwood to leaf area ratio (Huber value, v H ). The observed coordination between v H and sapwood hydraulic conductivity ( K S ) and photosynthetic capacity ( V cmax ) conformed to the proposed quantitative theory. Substantial hydraulic ersity was related to the trade‐off between K S and v H . Leaf drought tolerance (inferred from turgor loss point, –Ψ tlp ) increased with wood density, but the trade‐off between hydraulic efficiency ( K S ) and –Ψ tlp was weak. Plant trait effects on v H were dominated by variation in K S , while effects of environment were dominated by variation in temperature. This research unifies hydraulics, photosynthesis and the leaf economics spectrum in a common theoretical framework, and suggests a route towards the integration of photosynthesis and hydraulics in land‐surface models.
Replicated Evolution in Plants
Publisher: Annual Reviews
Date: 22-05-2023
DOI: 10.1146/ANNUREV-ARPLANT-071221-090809
Abstract: Similar traits and functions commonly evolve in nature. Here, we explore patterns of replicated evolution across the plant kingdom and discuss the processes responsible for such patterns. We begin this review by defining replicated evolution and the theoretical, genetic, and ecological concepts that help explain it. We then focus our attention on empirical cases of replicated evolution at the phenotypic and genotypic levels. We find that replication at the ecotype level is common, but evidence for repeated ecological speciation is surprisingly sparse. On the other hand, the replicated evolution of ecological strategies and physiological mechanisms across similar biomes appears to be pervasive. We conclude by highlighting where future efforts can help us bridge the understanding of replicated evolution across different levels of biological organization. Earth's landscape is erse but also repeats itself. Organisms seem to have followed suit.
Biomechanical and leaf–climate relationships: A comparison of ferns and seed plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2014
DOI: 10.3732/AJB.1300220
Abstract: Relationships of leaf size and shape (physiognomy) with climate have been well characterized for woody non-monocotyledonous angiosperms (dicots), allowing the development of models for estimating paleoclimate from fossil leaves. More recently, petiole width of seed plants has been shown to scale closely with leaf mass. By measuring petiole width and leaf area in fossils, leaf mass per area (MA) can be estimated and an approximate leaf life span inferred. However, little is known about these relationships in ferns, a clade with a deep fossil record and with the potential to greatly expand the applicability of these proxies. We measured the petiole width, MA, and leaf physiognomic characters of 179 fern species from 188 locations across six continents. We applied biomechanical models and assessed the relationship between leaf physiognomy and climate using correlational approaches. The scaling relationship between area-normalized petiole width and MA differs between fern fronds and pinnae. The scaling relationship is best modeled as an end-loaded cantilevered beam, which is different from the best-fit biomechanical model for seed plants. Fern leaf physiognomy is not influenced by climatic conditions. The cantilever beam model can be applied to fossil ferns. The lack of sensitivity of leaf physiognomy to climate in ferns argues against their use to reconstruct paleoclimate. Differences in climate sensitivity and biomechanical relationships between ferns and seed plants may be driven by differences in their hydraulic conductivity and/or their differing evolutionary histories of vein architecture and leaf morphology.
Enhanced photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency and increased nitrogen allocation to photosynthetic machinery under cotton domestication
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-10-2021
DOI: 10.1007/S11120-021-00872-W
Abstract: Domestication involves dramatic phenotypic and physiological ersifications due to successive selection by breeders toward high yield and quality. Although photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE) is a major trait for understanding leaf nitrogen economy, it is unclear whether PNUE of cotton has been improved under domestication. Here, we investigated the effect of domestication on nitrogen allocation to photosynthetic machinery and PNUE in 25 wild and 37 domesticated cotton genotypes. The results showed that domesticated genotypes had higher nitrogen content per mass (N
Multispectral, Aerial Disease Detection for Myrtle Rust (Austropuccinia psidii) on a Lemon Myrtle Plantation
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 07-03-2019
Abstract: Disease management in agriculture often assumes that pathogens are spread homogeneously across crops. In practice, pathogens can manifest in patches. Currently, disease detection is predominantly carried out by human assessors, which can be slow and expensive. A remote sensing approach holds promise. Current satellite sensors are not suitable to spatially resolve in idual plants or lack temporal resolution to monitor pathogenesis. Here, we used multispectral imaging and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to explore whether myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) could be detected on a lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) plantation. Multispectral aerial imagery was collected from fungicide treated and untreated tree canopies, the fungicide being used to control myrtle rust. Spectral vegetation indices and single spectral bands were used to train a random forest classifier. Treated and untreated trees could be classified with high accuracy (95%). Important predictors for the classifier were the near-infrared (NIR) and red edge (RE) spectral band. Taking some limitations into account, that are discussedherein, our work suggests potential for mapping myrtle rust-related symptoms from aerial multispectral images. Similar studies could focus on pinpointing disease hotspots to adjust management strategies and to feed epidemiological models.
Publisher Correction: Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-03-2020
The three major axes of terrestrial ecosystem function
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-09-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41586-021-03939-9
Abstract: The leaf economics spectrum 1,2 and the global spectrum of plant forms and functions 3 revealed fundamental axes of variation in plant traits, which represent different ecological strategies that are shaped by the evolutionary development of plant species 2 . Ecosystem functions depend on environmental conditions and the traits of species that comprise the ecological communities 4 . However, the axes of variation of ecosystem functions are largely unknown, which limits our understanding of how ecosystems respond as a whole to anthropogenic drivers, climate and environmental variability 4,5 . Here we derive a set of ecosystem functions 6 from a dataset of surface gas exchange measurements across major terrestrial biomes. We find that most of the variability within ecosystem functions (71.8%) is captured by three key axes. The first axis reflects maximum ecosystem productivity and is mostly explained by vegetation structure. The second axis reflects ecosystem water-use strategies and is jointly explained by variation in vegetation height and climate. The third axis, which represents ecosystem carbon-use efficiency, features a gradient related to aridity, and is explained primarily by variation in vegetation structure. We show that two state-of-the-art land surface models reproduce the first and most important axis of ecosystem functions. However, the models tend to simulate more strongly correlated functions than those observed, which limits their ability to accurately predict the full range of responses to environmental changes in carbon, water and energy cycling in terrestrial ecosystems 7,8 .
Plant ecological strategies
Publisher: Annual Reviews
Date: 11-2002
DOI: 10.1146/ANNUREV.ECOLSYS.33.010802.150452
Abstract: ▪ Abstract An important aim of plant ecology is to identify leading dimensions of ecological variation among species and to understand the basis for them. Dimensions that can readily be measured would be especially useful, because they might offer a path towards improved worldwide synthesis across the thousands of field experiments and ecophysiological studies that use just a few species each. Four dimensions are reviewed here. The leaf mass per area–leaf lifespan (LMA-LL) dimension expresses slow turnover of plant parts (at high LMA and long LL), long nutrient residence times, and slow response to favorable growth conditions. The seed mass–seed output (SM-SO) dimension is an important predictor of dispersal to establishment opportunities (seed output) and of establishment success in the face of hazards (seed mass). The LMA-LL and SM-SO dimensions are each underpinned by a single, comprehensible tradeoff, and their consequences are fairly well understood. The leaf size–twig size (LS-TS) spectrum has obvious consequences for the texture of canopies, but the costs and benefits of large versus small leaf and twig size are poorly understood. The height dimension has universally been seen as ecologically important and included in ecological strategy schemes. Nevertheless, height includes several tradeoffs and adaptive elements, which ideally should be treated separately. Each of these four dimensions varies at the scales of climate zones and of site types within landscapes. This variation can be interpreted as adaptation to the physical environment. Each dimension also varies widely among coexisting species. Most likely this within-site variation arises because the ecological opportunities for each species depend strongly on which other species are present, in other words, because the set of species at a site is a stable mixture of strategies.
Leaf economics and plant hydraulics drive leaf : wood area ratios
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-07-2019
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.15998
Abstract: Biomass and area ratios between leaves, stems and roots regulate many physiological and ecological processes. The Huber value H
Scaling of respiration to nitrogen in leaves, stems and roots of higher land plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-07-2008
DOI: 10.1111/J.1461-0248.2008.01185.X
Abstract: Using a database of 2510 measurements from 287 species, we assessed whether general relationships exist between mass-based dark respiration rate and nitrogen concentration for stems and roots, and if they do, whether they are similar to those for leaves. The results demonstrate strong respiration-nitrogen scaling relationships for all observations and for data averaged by species for roots, stems and leaves examined separately and for life-forms (woody, herbaceous plants) and phylogenetic groups (angiosperms, gymnosperms) considered separately. No consistent differences in the slopes of these log-log scaling relations were observed among organs or among plant groups, but respiration rates at any common nitrogen concentration were consistently lower on average in leaves than in stems or roots, indicating that organ-specific relationships should be used in models that simulate respiration based on tissue nitrogen concentrations. The results demonstrate both common and ergent aspects of tissue-level respiration-nitrogen scaling for leaves, stems and roots across higher land plants, which are important in their own right and for their utility in modelling carbon fluxes at local to global scales.
Revisiting the role of mean annual precipitation in shaping functional trait distributions at a continental scale
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 07-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.29.546983
Abstract: 1 Mean annual precipitation (MAP) plays an undisputed role in determining the spatial distribution of the vegetative ecosystems on Earth. Nevertheless, the relationship between MAP and plant functional traits remains unclear. Here, we test the relationship between eight key functional traits and MAP. Our analysis reveals a strong, coordinated response of several plant traits including leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen, the leaf carbon isotope ratio and plant height from resource-conservative to resource-acquisitive values as MAP increased. These results establish an important role for MAP in driving trait selection across space and, therefore, a need for these effects to be included in future theoretical frameworks.
Leaf economics fundamentals explained by optimality principles
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 20-01-2023
Abstract: The life span of leaves increases with their mass per unit area (LMA). It is unclear why. Here, we show that this empirical generalization (the foundation of the worldwide leaf economics spectrum) is a consequence of natural selection, maximizing average net carbon gain over the leaf life cycle. Analyzing two large leaf trait datasets, we show that evergreen and deciduous species with erse construction costs (assumed proportional to LMA) are selected by light, temperature, and growing-season length in different, but predictable, ways. We quantitatively explain the observed ergent latitudinal trends in evergreen and deciduous LMA and show how local distributions of LMA arise by selection under different environmental conditions acting on the species pool. These results illustrate how optimality principles can underpin a new theory for plant geography and terrestrial carbon dynamics.
Zanne et al. reply
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-2015
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE14394
Functional biogeography of angiosperms: life at the extremes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-03-2018
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.15114
Abstract: Nonlinear relationships between species and their environments are believed common in ecology and evolution, including during angiosperms' rise to dominance. Early angiosperms are thought of as woody evergreens restricted to warm, wet habitats. They have since expanded into numerous cold and dry places. This expansion may have included transitions across important environmental thresholds. To understand linear and nonlinear relationships between angiosperm structure and biogeographic distributions, we integrated large datasets of growth habits, conduit sizes, leaf phenologies, evolutionary histories, and environmental limits. We consider current-day patterns and develop a new evolutionary model to investigate processes that created them. The macroecological pattern was clear: herbs had lower minimum temperature and precipitation limits. In woody species, conduit sizes were smaller in evergreens and related to species' minimum temperatures. Across evolutionary timescales, our new modeling approach found conduit sizes in deciduous species decreased linearly with minimum temperature limits. By contrast, evergreen species had a sigmoidal relationship with minimum temperature limits and an inflection overlapping freezing. These results suggest freezing represented an important threshold for evergreen but not deciduous woody angiosperms. Global success of angiosperms appears tied to a small set of alternative solutions when faced with a novel environmental threshold.
Climatic and soil factors explain the two-dimensional spectrum of global plant trait variation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-12-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-021-01616-8
Abstract: Plant functional traits can predict community assembly and ecosystem functioning and are thus widely used in global models of vegetation dynamics and land–climate feedbacks. Still, we lack a global understanding of how land and climate affect plant traits. A previous global analysis of six traits observed two main axes of variation: (1) size variation at the organ and plant level and (2) leaf economics balancing leaf persistence against plant growth potential. The orthogonality of these two axes suggests they are differently influenced by environmental drivers. We find that these axes persist in a global dataset of 17 traits across more than 20,000 species. We find a dominant joint effect of climate and soil on trait variation. Additional independent climate effects are also observed across most traits, whereas independent soil effects are almost exclusively observed for economics traits. Variation in size traits correlates well with a latitudinal gradient related to water or energy limitation. In contrast, variation in economics traits is better explained by interactions of climate with soil fertility. These findings have the potential to improve our understanding of bio ersity patterns and our predictions of climate change impacts on biogeochemical cycles.
Leaf trait adaptations of xylem-tapping mistletoes and their hosts in sites of contrasting aridity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-12-2016
Interrelations among pressure-volume curve traits across species and water availability gradients
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-05-2006
Leaf:wood allometry and functional traits together explain substantial growth rate variation in rainforest trees
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 16-04-2019
Abstract: Plant growth rates drive ecosystem productivity and are a central element of plant ecological strategies. For seedlings grown under controlled conditions, a large literature has firmly identified the functional traits that drive interspecific variation in growth rate. For adult plants, the corresponding knowledge is surprisingly poorly understood. Until recently it was widely assumed that the key trait drivers would be the same (e.g. specific leaf area, or SLA), but an increasing number of papers has demonstrated this not to be the case, or not generally so. New theory has provided a prospective basis for understanding these discrepancies. Here we quantified relationships between stem diameter growth rates and functional traits of adult woody plants for 41 species in an Australian tropical rainforest. From various cost-benefit considerations, core predictions included that: (i) photosynthetic rate would be positively related to growth rate (ii) SLA would be unrelated to growth rate (unlike in seedlings where it is positively related to growth) (iii) wood density would be negatively related to growth rate and (iv) leaf mass:sapwood mass ratio (LM:SM) in branches (analogous to a benefit:cost ratio) would be positively related to growth rate. All our predictions found support, particularly those for LM:SM and wood density photosynthetic rate was more weakly related to stem diameter growth rates. Specific leaf area was convincingly correlated to growth rate, in fact negatively. Together, SLA, wood density and LM:SM accounted for 52 % of variation in growth rate among these 41 species, with each trait contributing roughly similar explanatory power. That low SLA species can achieve faster growth rates than high SLA species was an unexpected result but, as it turns out, not without precedent, and easily understood via cost-benefit theory that considers whole-plant allocation to different tissue types. Branch-scale leaf:sapwood ratio holds promise as an easily measurable variable that may help to understand growth rate variation. Using cost-benefit approaches teamed with combinations of leaf, wood and allometric variables may provide a path towards a more complete understanding of growth rates under field conditions.
Plant species traits are the predominant control on litter decomposition rates within biomes worldwide
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2008
DOI: 10.1111/J.1461-0248.2008.01219.X
Abstract: Worldwide decomposition rates depend both on climate and the legacy of plant functional traits as litter quality. To quantify the degree to which functional differentiation among species affects their litter decomposition rates, we brought together leaf trait and litter mass loss data for 818 species from 66 decomposition experiments on six continents. We show that: (i) the magnitude of species-driven differences is much larger than previously thought and greater than climate-driven variation (ii) the decomposability of a species' litter is consistently correlated with that species' ecological strategy within different ecosystems globally, representing a new connection between whole plant carbon strategy and biogeochemical cycling. This connection between plant strategies and decomposability is crucial for both understanding vegetation-soil feedbacks, and for improving forecasts of the global carbon cycle.
Sensitivity of leaf size and shape to climate: global patterns and paleoclimatic applications
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-02-2011
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2010.03615.X
Abstract: See also the Commentary by Burnham and Tonkovich
Understanding seedling growth relationships through specific leaf area and leaf nitrogen concentration
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-2001
Abstract: Seedling relative growth rate (RGR) achieved under favourable growth conditions can be thought of as a useful bioassay of the potential ability of species to take advantage of favourable growth opportunities that is, of a species' growth strategy. The consistency of relationships between RGR and its component attributes leaf nitrogen productivity (LNP), leaf N per area (LNCa), specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf mass ratio (LMR) was assessed across 12 datasets comprising three growth forms (grasses, herbaceous dicots and woody plants 250 species in total). These relationships were characterised in terms of scaling slopes (regressions on log-log axes, the slopes giving the proportional relationship between the variables). Mathematically, the expected scaling slope between RGR and each component is 1.0, giving an appropriate null hypothesis to test against (whereas the widely used null hypothesis of zero correlation is in fact inappropriate for this situation). Deviations below 1:1 scaling slopes indicate negative covariance between the components. Consequently, the correlation structure between the components of RGR should also be investigated. Biologically, RGR should scale 1:1 with SLA at a given LNCa and somewhat more weakly with LNCa at a given SLA. SLA and LNCa should themselves scale with a slope of between 0 and -1, with the actual slope indicating the extent to which between-species variation in SLA dilutes leaf N on an area basis versus the ability of species to maintain LNCa at a given growth irradiance. On average, across the 12 datasets RGR scaled close-to-proportionally with SLA, and 1:1 with SLA at a given LNCa. RGR scaled with LNCa with null or negative slopes, since SLA and LNCa scaled negatively (with slopes generally shallower than -1) however, RGR scaled positively (but less than proportionally) with LNCa at a given SLA. For these key relationships there were no qualitatively different conclusions with respect to the growth form under consideration or the growth irradiance at which the seedlings were grown. RGR also scaled close-to-proportionally with LNP, while LNP and LNCa were negatively associated. These relationships involving LNP are difficult to interpret since it can be shown that they are, at least potentially, the result of the interactions between RGR, SLA and LNCa, as well as reflecting intrinsic differences in the efficiency of nitrogen use in the growth process.
Global leaf‐trait mapping based on optimality theory
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-04-2023
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13680
Abstract: Leaf traits are central to plant function, and key variables in ecosystem models. However recently published global trait maps, made by applying statistical or machine‐learning techniques to large compilations of trait and environmental data, differ substantially from one another. This paper aims to demonstrate the potential of an alternative approach, based on eco‐evolutionary optimality theory, to yield predictions of spatio‐temporal patterns in leaf traits that can be independently evaluated. Global patterns of community‐mean specific leaf area (SLA) and photosynthetic capacity ( V cmax ) are predicted from climate via existing optimality models. Then leaf nitrogen per unit area ( N area ) and mass ( N mass ) are inferred using their (previously derived) empirical relationships to SLA and V cmax . Trait data are thus reserved for testing model predictions across sites. Temporal trends can also be predicted, as consequences of environmental change, and compared to those inferred from leaf‐level measurements and/or remote‐sensing methods, which are an increasingly important source of information on spatio‐temporal variation in plant traits. Model predictions evaluated against site‐mean trait data from 2,000 sites in the Plant Trait database yielded R 2 = 73% for SLA, 38% for N mass and 28% for N area . Declining species‐level N mass , and increasing community‐level SLA, have both been recently reported and were both correctly predicted. Leaf‐trait mapping via optimality theory holds promise for macroecological applications, including an improved understanding of community leaf‐trait responses to environmental change.
AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-09-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-021-01006-6
Abstract: We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field c aigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and in idual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised in idual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge.
Convergence in phosphorus constraints to photosynthesis in forests around the world
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-08-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-022-32545-0
Abstract: Tropical forests take up more carbon (C) from the atmosphere per annum by photosynthesis than any other type of vegetation. Phosphorus (P) limitations to C uptake are paramount for tropical and subtropical forests around the globe. Yet the generality of photosynthesis-P relationships underlying these limitations are in question, and hence are not represented well in terrestrial biosphere models. Here we demonstrate the dependence of photosynthesis and underlying processes on both leaf N and P concentrations. The regulation of photosynthetic capacity by P was similar across four continents. Implementing P constraints in the ORCHIDEE-CNP model, gross photosynthesis was reduced by 36% across the tropics and subtropics relative to traditional N constraints and unlimiting leaf P. Our results provide a quantitative relationship for the P dependence for photosynthesis for the front-end of global terrestrial C models that is consistent with canopy leaf measurements.
Functional differences between native and alien species: a global‐scale comparison
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-11-2010
Land-plant ecology on the basis of functional traits
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2006
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2006.02.004
Abstract: The tissue traits and architectures of plant species are important for land-plant ecology in two ways. First, they control ecosystem processes and define habitat and resources for other taxa thus, they are a high priority for understanding the ecosystem at a site. Second, knowledge of trait costs and benefits offers the most promising path to understanding how vegetation properties change along physical geography gradients. There exists an informal shortlist of plant traits that are thought to be most informative. Here, we summarize recent research on correlations and tradeoffs surrounding some traits that are prospects for the shortlist. By extending the list and by developing better models for how traits influence species distributions and interactions, a strong foundation of basic ecology can be established, with many practical applications.
Nutrient concentration, resorption and lifespan
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2003
Applying the economic concept of profitability to leaves
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-01-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-020-79709-W
Abstract: Economic principles can be extended to biological organisms as they optimize the use of resources, but their use in biology has been limited. We applied concepts from traditional economics to the main production unit of plants, the leaf. We quantified the profitability (profit/cost of investment) of leaves from seven biomes worldwide and compared those to the profitability of companies. Here we demonstrate for the first time key similarities and differences between leaf and human economics. First, there was a weak, but positive relationship between profitability and size, both for leaves and companies. Second, environment has a strong effect on profitability, with high values in leaves from biomes with short growth periods and, for companies associated with innovation. Third, shorter longevity of productive units was related to higher profitability. In summary, by comparing economic behaviours of plants and humans there is potential to develop new perspectives on plant ecological strategies and plant evolution.
Neutrinos and gravitational waves from magnetized neutrino-dominated accretion discs with magnetic coupling
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 09-04-2020
Abstract: Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) might be powered by black hole (BH) hyperaccretion systems via the Blandford–Znajek (BZ) mechanism or neutrino annihilation from neutrino-dominated accretion flows (NDAFs). Magnetic coupling (MC) between the inner disc and BH can transfer angular momentum and energy from the fast-rotating BH to the disc. The neutrino luminosity and neutrino annihilation luminosity are both efficiently enhanced by the MC process. In this paper, we study the structure, luminosity, MeV neutrinos, and gravitational waves (GWs) of magnetized NDAFs (MNDAFs) under the assumption that both the BZ and MC mechanisms are present. The results indict that the BZ mechanism will compete with the neutrino annihilation luminosity to trigger jets under the different partitions of the two magnetic mechanisms. The typical neutrino luminosity and annihilation luminosity of MNDAFs are definitely higher than those of NDAFs. The typical peak energy of neutrino spectra of MNDAFs is higher than that of NDAFs, but similar to those of core-collapse supernovae. Moreover, if the MC process is dominant, then the GWs originating from the anisotropic neutrino emission will be stronger particularly for discs with high accretion rates.
Relationships between leaf lifespan and structural defences in a low‐nutrient, sclerophyll flora
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2001
Fibre wall and lumen fractions drive wood density variation across 24 Australian angiosperms
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 2013
Stem diameter growth rates in a fire-prone savanna correlate with photosynthetic rate and branch-scale biomass allocation, but not specific leaf area
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-11-2019
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12678
Black Hole Hyperaccretion in Collapsars. I. MeV Neutrinos
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 24-06-2019
Leaf manganese concentrations as a tool to assess belowground plant functioning in phosphorus-impoverished environments
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-09-2020
Convergence in Maximum Stomatal Conductance of C3 Woody Angiosperms in Natural Ecosystems Across Bioclimatic Zones
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 07-05-2019
Erratum: Corrigendum: Three keys to the radiation of angiosperms into freezing environments
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-2014
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE13842
Are leaf functional traits ‘invariant’ with plant size and what is ‘invariance’ anyway?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-06-2014
Gradients of light availability and leaf traits with leaf age and canopy position in 28 Australian shrubs and trees
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2006
DOI: 10.1071/FP05319
Abstract: Light availability generally decreases vertically downwards through plant canopies. According to optimisation theory, in order to maximise canopy photosynthesis plants should allocate leaf nitrogen per area (Narea) in parallel with vertical light gradients, and leaf mass per area (LMA) and leaf angles should decrease down through the canopy also. Many species show trends consistent with these predictions, although these are never as steep as predicted. Most studies of canopy gradients in leaf traits have concerned tall herbaceous vegetation or forest trees. But do evergreen species from open habitats also show these patterns? We quantified gradients of light availability, LMA, leaf N and phosphorus (P), and leaf angle along leaf age sequences and vertical canopy profiles, across 28 woody species from open habitats in eastern Australia. The observed trends in LMA, Narea and leaf angle largely conflicted with expectations from canopy optimisation models, whereas trends in leaf P were more consistent with optimal allocation. These discrepancies most likely relate to these species having rather open canopies with quite shallow light gradients, but also suggest that modelling the co-optimisation of resources other than nitrogen is required for understanding plant canopies.
Disentangling Coordination among Functional Traits Using an Individual-Centred Model: Impact on Plant Performance at Intra- and Inter-Specific Levels
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 09-10-2013
Coordination of photosynthetic traits across soil and climate gradients
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-11-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16501
Abstract: “Least‐cost theory” posits that C 3 plants should balance rates of photosynthetic water loss and carboxylation in relation to the relative acquisition and maintenance costs of resources required for these activities. Here we investigated the dependency of photosynthetic traits on climate and soil properties using a new Australia‐wide trait dataset spanning 528 species from 67 sites. We tested the hypotheses that plants on relatively cold or dry sites, or on relatively more fertile sites, would typically operate at greater CO 2 drawdown (lower ratio of leaf internal to ambient CO 2 , C i : C a ) during light‐saturated photosynthesis, and at higher leaf N per area (N area ) and higher carboxylation capacity ( V cmax 25 ) for a given rate of stomatal conductance to water vapour, g sw . These results would be indicative of plants having relatively higher water costs than nutrient costs. In general, our hypotheses were supported. Soil total phosphorus (P) concentration and (more weakly) soil pH exerted positive effects on the N area – g sw and V cmax 25 – g sw slopes, and negative effects on C i : C a . The P effect strengthened when the effect of climate was removed via partial regression. We observed similar trends with increasing soil cation exchange capacity and clay content, which affect soil nutrient availability, and found that soil properties explained similar amounts of variation in the focal traits as climate did. Although climate typically explained more trait variation than soil did, together they explained up to 52% of variation in the slope relationships and soil properties explained up to 30% of the variation in in idual traits. Soils influenced photosynthetic traits as well as their coordination. In particular, the influence of soil P likely reflects the Australia's geologically ancient low‐relief landscapes with highly leached soils. Least‐cost theory provides a valuable framework for understanding trade‐offs between resource costs and use in plants, including limiting soil nutrients.
Correction: Corrigendum: Three keys to the radiation of angiosperms into freezing environments
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-2015
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE14371
“Diminishing returns” in the scaling of functional leaf traits across and within species groups
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 22-05-2007
Abstract: More than 5,000 measurements from 1,943 plant species were used to explore the scaling relationships among the foliar surface area and the dry, water, and nitrogen hosphorus mass of mature in idual leaves. Although they differed statistically, the exponents for the relationships among these variables were numerically similar among six species groups (ferns, graminoids, forbs, shrubs, trees, and vines) and within 19 in idual species. In general, at least one among the many scaling exponents was .0, such that increases in one or more features influencing foliar function (e.g., surface area or living leaf mass) failed to keep pace with increases in mature leaf size. Thus, a general set of scaling relationships exists that negatively affects increases in leaf size. We argue that this set reflects a fundamental property of all plants and helps to explain why annual growth fails to keep pace with increases in total body mass across species.
Functional traits and the growth–mortality trade‐off in tropical trees
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2010
DOI: 10.1890/09-2335.1
Abstract: A trade-off between growth and mortality rates characterizes tree species in closed canopy forests. This trade-off is maintained by inherent differences among species and spatial variation in light availability caused by canopy-opening disturbances. We evaluated conditions under which the trade-off is expressed and relationships with four key functional traits for 103 tree species from Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The trade-off is strongest for saplings for growth rates of the fastest growing in iduals and mortality rates of the slowest growing in iduals (r2 = 0.69), intermediate for saplings for average growth rates and overall mortality rates (r2 = 0.46), and much weaker for large trees (r2 < or = 0.10). This parallels likely levels of spatial variation in light availability, which is greatest for fast- vs. slow-growing saplings and least for large trees with foliage in the forest canopy. Inherent attributes of species contributing to the trade-off include abilities to disperse, acquire resources, grow rapidly, and tolerate shade and other stresses. There is growing interest in the possibility that functional traits might provide insight into such ecological differences and a growing consensus that seed mass (SM), leaf mass per area (LMA), wood density (WD), and maximum height (H(max)) are key traits among forest trees. Seed mass, LMA, WD, and H(max) are predicted to be small for light-demanding species with rapid growth and mortality and large for shade-tolerant species with slow growth and mortality. Six of these trait-demographic rate predictions were realized for saplings however, with the exception of WD, the relationships were weak (r2 < 0.1 for three and r2 80% of the explained variation and, after WD was included, LMA and H(max) made insignificant contributions. Virtually the full range of values of SM, LMA, and H(max) occurred at all positions on the growth-mortality trade-off. Although WD provides a promising start, a successful trait-based ecology of tropical forest trees will require consideration of additional traits.
Leaf water content contributes to global leaf trait relationships
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-09-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-022-32784-1
Abstract: Leaf functional traits are important indicators of plant growth and ecosystem dynamics. Despite a wealth of knowledge about leaf trait relationships, a mechanistic understanding of how biotic and abiotic factors quantitatively influence leaf trait variation and scaling is still incomplete. We propose that leaf water content (LWC) inherently affects other leaf traits, although its role has been largely neglected. Here, we present a modification of a previously validated model based on metabolic theory and use an extensive global leaf trait dataset to test it. Analyses show that mass-based photosynthetic capacity and specific leaf area increase nonlinearly with LWC, as predicted by the model. When the effects of temperature and LWC are controlled, the numerical values for the leaf area-mass scaling exponents converge onto 1.0 across plant functional groups, ecosystem types, and latitudinal zones. The data also indicate that leaf water mass is a better predictor of whole-leaf photosynthesis and leaf area than whole-leaf nitrogen and phosphorus masses. Our findings highlight a comprehensive theory that can quantitatively predict some global patterns from the leaf economics spectrum.
Balancing the costs of carbon gain and water transport: testing a new theoretical framework for plant functional ecology
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-11-2013
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.12211
Abstract: A novel framework is presented for the analysis of ecophysiological field measurements and modelling. The hypothesis 'leaves minimise the summed unit costs of transpiration and carboxylation' predicts leaf-internal/ambient CO2 ratios (ci /ca ) and slopes of maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax ) or leaf nitrogen (Narea ) vs. stomatal conductance. Analysis of data on woody species from contrasting climates (cold-hot, dry-wet) yielded steeper slopes and lower mean ci /ca ratios at the dry or cold sites than at the wet or hot sites. High atmospheric vapour pressure deficit implies low ci /ca in dry climates. High water viscosity (more costly transport) and low photorespiration (less costly photosynthesis) imply low ci /ca in cold climates. Observed site-mean ci /ca shifts are predicted quantitatively for temperature contrasts (by photorespiration plus viscosity effects) and approximately for aridity contrasts. The theory explains the dependency of ci /ca ratios on temperature and vapour pressure deficit, and observed relationships of leaf δ(13) C and Narea to aridity.
Three keys to the radiation of angiosperms into freezing environments
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-12-2014
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE12872
Abstract: Early flowering plants are thought to have been woody species restricted to warm habitats. This lineage has since radiated into almost every climate, with manifold growth forms. As angiosperms spread and climate changed, they evolved mechanisms to cope with episodic freezing. To explore the evolution of traits underpinning the ability to persist in freezing conditions, we assembled a large species-level database of growth habit (woody or herbaceous 49,064 species), as well as leaf phenology (evergreen or deciduous), diameter of hydraulic conduits (that is, xylem vessels and tracheids) and climate occupancies (exposure to freezing). To model the evolution of species' traits and climate occupancies, we combined these data with an unparalleled dated molecular phylogeny (32,223 species) for land plants. Here we show that woody clades successfully moved into freezing-prone environments by either possessing transport networks of small safe conduits and/or shutting down hydraulic function by dropping leaves during freezing. Herbaceous species largely avoided freezing periods by senescing cheaply constructed aboveground tissue. Growth habit has long been considered labile, but we find that growth habit was less labile than climate occupancy. Additionally, freezing environments were largely filled by lineages that had already become herbs or, when remaining woody, already had small conduits (that is, the trait evolved before the climate occupancy). By contrast, most deciduous woody lineages had an evolutionary shift to seasonally shedding their leaves only after exposure to freezing (that is, the climate occupancy evolved before the trait). For angiosperms to inhabit novel cold environments they had to gain new structural and functional trait solutions our results suggest that many of these solutions were probably acquired before their foray into the cold.
Nutrient‐rich plants emit a less intense blend of volatile isoprenoids
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-11-2017
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.14889
Evidence from the proteome for local adaptation to extreme heat in a widespread tree species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-01-2019
When and where soil is important to modify the carbon and water economy of leaves
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-07-2020
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.16702
Understanding ecological variation across species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-05-2013
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.12345
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