ORCID Profile
0000-0001-7690-4530
Current Organisation
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 | Terrestrial Ecology | Conservation And Biodiversity | Environmental Science and Management | Ecology And Evolution Not Elsewhere Classified | Evolutionary Biology | Natural Resource Management | Palaeoecology | Life Histories (Incl. Population Ecology) | Global Change Biology | Evolutionary Impacts of Climate Change | Plant Physiology | Biological Adaptation | Geochemistry | Ceramics | Zoology Not Elsewhere Classified | Biological Mathematics | Plant Biology | Management And Environment | Wildlife And Habitat Management | Applied Economics | Landscape Ecology | Geochemistry Not Elsewhere Classified | Ecological Applications | Botany Not Elsewhere Classified | Environment And Resource Economics | Biotechnology Not Elsewhere Classified | Archaeology Of Hunter-Gatherer Societies (Incl. Pleistocene | Proteomics and Intermolecular Interactions (excl. Medical Proteomics) | Life Histories | Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis | Plant Physiology |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Land and water management | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Environmental and resource evaluation not elsewhere classified | Land and water management | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Climate change | Global climate change adaptation measures | Land and Water Management of environments not elsewhere classified | Native vegetation | Rehabilitation of degraded areas | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Land and water management | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Biological sciences | Living resources (incl. impacts of fishing on non-target species) | Aquaculture | Ceramics | Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Regional or Larger Scales | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Marine protected areas | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences
Related Links
Publications
Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-02-2020
DNA technology and evolution of the Central Dogma
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2014
Species in the tail of rank-abundance curves
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-1999
Bark ecology of twigs vs. main stems: functional traits across eighty-five species of angiosperms
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-04-2015
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-015-3307-5
Abstract: Although produced by meristems that are continuous along the stem length, marked differences in bark morphology and in microenvironment would suggest that main stem and twig bark might differ ecologically. Here, we examined: (1) how closely associated main stem and twig bark traits were, (2) how these associations varied across sites, and (3) used these associations to infer functional and ecological differences between twig and main stem bark. We measured density, water content, photosynthesis presence/absence, total, outer, inner, and relative thicknesses of main stem and twig bark from 85 species of angiosperms from six sites of contrasting precipitation, temperature, and fire regimes. Density and water content did not differ between main stems and twigs across species and sites. Species with thicker twig bark had disproportionately thicker main stem bark in most sites, but the slope and degree of association varied. Disproportionately thicker main stem bark for a given twig bark thickness in most fire-prone sites suggested stem protection near the ground. The savanna had the opposite trend, suggesting that selection also favors twig protection in these fire-prone habitats. A weak main stem-twig bark thickness association was observed in non fire-prone sites. The near-ubiquity of photosynthesis in twigs highlighted its likely ecological importance variation in this activity was predicted by outer bark thickness in main stems. It seems that the ecology of twig bark can be generalized to main stem bark, but not for functions depending on the amount of bark, such as protection, storage, or photosynthesis.
A brief history of seed size
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 28-01-2005
Abstract: Improved phylogenies and the accumulation of broad comparative data sets have opened the way for phylogenetic analyses to trace trait evolution in major groups of organisms. We arrayed seed mass data for 12,987 species on the seed plant phylogeny and show the history of seed size from the emergence of the angiosperms through to the present day. The largest single contributor to the present-day spread of seed mass was the ergence between angiosperms and gymnosperms, whereas the widest ergence was between Celastraceae and Parnassiaceae. Wide ergences in seed size were more often associated with ergences in growth form than with ergences in dispersal syndrome or latitude. Cross-species studies and evolutionary theory are consistent with this evidence that growth form and seed size evolve in a coordinated manner.
Larger seeds in tropical floras
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 1997
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.
Seed size and shape are not related to persistence in soil in Australia in the same way as in Britain
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-1998
The relationship between nuclear DNA content and leaf strategy in seed plants
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 17-10-2005
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCI284
Global patterns in seed size
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-12-2007
On the link between functional traits and growth rate
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-06-2016
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.
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.
Seedlings from large seeds tolerate defoliation better
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-1993
DOI: 10.2307/1940479
Modulation of leaf economic traits and trait relationships by climate
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-08-2005
A model for the origin of heterospory
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-1988
On limits to seed production
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 05-1988
DOI: 10.1086/284817
Plant functional traits in Australian subtropical rain forest
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2010
Response to comment on A brief history of seed size
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 04-11-2005
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.
Self‐thinning in Trifolium subterraneum not affected by cultivar shape
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-1976
Further remarks on phylogenetic correction
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 08-1995
DOI: 10.2307/2261640
Leaf litter flammability in some semi-arid Australian woodlands
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-08-2006
Seed mass and seedling establishment after fire in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Sydney, Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2004
Whole-plant capacitance, embolism resistance and slow transpiration rates all contribute to longer desiccation times in woody angiosperms from arid and wet habitats
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 18-02-2014
Abstract: Low water potentials in xylem can result in damaging levels of cavitation, yet little is understood about which hydraulic traits have most influence in delaying the onset of hydraulic dysfunction during periods of drought. We examined three traits contributing to longer desiccation times in excised shoots of 11 species from two sites of contrasting aridity: (i) the amount of water released from plant tissues per decrease in xylem water potential (WΨ) (ii) the minimum xylem water potential preceding acute water stress (defined as P50L water potential at 50% loss of leaf conductance) and (iii) the integrated transpiration rate between the points of full hydration and P50L (Wtime). The time required for species to reach P50L varied markedly, ranging from 1.3 h to nearly 3 days. WΨ, P50L and Wtime all contributed significantly to longer desiccation times, explaining 28, 22 and 50% of the variance in the time required to reach P50L. Interestingly, these three traits were nearly orthogonal to one another, suggesting that they do not represent alternative hydraulic strategies, but likely trade off with other ecological strategies not evaluated in this study. The majority of water lost during desiccation (60-91%) originated from leaves, suggesting an important role for leaf capacitance in small plants when xylem water potentials decrease below -2 MPa.
Plant performance response to eight different types of symbiosis
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-01-2019
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.15392
Abstract: Almost all plant species interact with one or more symbioses somewhere within their distribution range. Bringing together plant trait data and growth responses to symbioses spanning 552 plant species, we provide for the first time on a large scale (597 studies) a quantitative synthesis on plant performance differences between eight major types of symbiosis, including mycorrhizas, N-fixing bacteria, fungal endophytes and ant-plant interactions. Frequency distributions of plant growth responses varied considerably between different types of symbiosis, in terms of both mean effect and 'risk', defined here as percentage of experiments reporting a negative effect of symbiosis on plants. Contrary to expectation, plant traits were poor predictors of growth response across and within all eight symbiotic associations. Our analysis showed no systematic additive effect when a host plant engaged in two functionally different symbioses. This synthesis suggests that plant species' ecological strategies have little effect in determining the influence of a symbiosis on host plant growth. Reliable quantification of differences in plant performance across symbioses will prove valuable for developing general hypotheses on how species become engaged in mutualisms without a guarantee of net returns.
Plant species richness at the 0.1 hectare scale in Australian vegetation compared to other continents
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-1983
DOI: 10.1007/BF00044988
Automatic Adaptive Recovery Stress ES-FEM for Lower-Bound Limit Load Analysis of Structures
Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Pte Ltd
Date: 29-05-2022
DOI: 10.1142/S0219876221410140
Abstract: The paper proposes a novel automatic adaptive recovery stress edge-smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM) that determines the maximum load capacity of inelastic structures at plastic collapse. This approach performs solely a series of elastic ES-FEM analyses with systematic modulus variations (considering the influences of stress singularity) to converge the collapse load solutions. The smoothed [Formula: see text]-continuous recovery stress field ensures the satisfaction of static admissible stress and yield conformity conditions underpinning lower-bound limit analysis theorems. A modified modulus error function within the newest node bisection algorithm enables automatic mesh refining and coarsening constructions, and fast convergence to the lower-bound collapse limit.
Phylogenetic tests of community assembly across regional to continental scales in tropical and subtropical rain forests
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-02-2011
Demography of two shrub species from an arid grazed ecosystem in Western Australia 1983-93
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 12-1997
DOI: 10.2307/2960604
Wet and dry tropical forests show opposite successional pathways in wood density but converge over time
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-04-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-019-0882-6
Abstract: Tropical forests are converted at an alarming rate for agricultural use and pastureland, but also regrow naturally through secondary succession. For successful forest restoration, it is essential to understand the mechanisms of secondary succession. These mechanisms may vary across forest types, but analyses across broad spatial scales are lacking. Here, we analyse forest recovery using 1,403 plots that differ in age since agricultural abandonment from 50 sites across the Neotropics. We analyse changes in community composition using species-specific stem wood density (WD), which is a key trait for plant growth, survival and forest carbon storage. In wet forest, succession proceeds from low towards high community WD (acquisitive towards conservative trait values), in line with standard successional theory. However, in dry forest, succession proceeds from high towards low community WD (conservative towards acquisitive trait values), probably because high WD reflects drought tolerance in harsh early successional environments. Dry season intensity drives WD recovery by influencing the start and trajectory of succession, resulting in convergence of the community WD over time as vegetation cover builds up. These ecological insights can be used to improve species selection for reforestation. Reforestation species selected to establish a first protective canopy layer should, among other criteria, ideally have a similar WD to the early successional communities that dominate under the prevailing macroclimatic conditions.
Continuous and episodic components of demographic change in arid zone shrubs
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 12-1997
DOI: 10.2307/2960605
Vertebrate-dispersed species in a fire-prone environment
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-1996
The conservative low‐phosphorus niche in Proteaceae
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-04-2021
The role of large seed size in shaded conditions
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 04-1994
DOI: 10.2307/2389903
Response to Kearney and Porter
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2006
Accessory costs of seed production
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2006
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-006-0523-Z
Abstract: Accessory costs of reproduction are those that are necessary to mature a seed, but that do not involve the direct cost of provisioning the seed itself. This study aims to quantify accessory costs in a range of species, and test whether they decrease as a proportion of total reproductive expenditure with increasing seed mass, as might be expected if economies of scale came into play at larger seed sizes. We also test whether accessory costs varied with growth form, pollination mode, and dispersal mode, with the expectation that biotic pollination and dispersal modes should incur greater costs. Reproductive allocation (dry biomass) over one season, was calculated for 14 diclinous angiosperm species. Accessory costs averaged 73% of total reproductive allocation, with the majority spent on packaging and dispersal. Total accessory costs, packaging and dispersal costs, and costs incurred prior to pollination were proportional to direct costs of reproduction in major axis regressions. However, larger seeded species incurred significantly greater costs associated with aborted seeds and fruits, and matured a smaller proportion of ovules. This is consistent with larger seeded species being more selective of the ovules/embryos matured than small-seeded species. Total accessory costs, and proportion of ovules aborted, were also significantly greater for biotically dispersed species, but only due to an association with larger seed masses. Costs associated with abortions were lower for biotically pollinated species, due to a general trend of more ovules per ovary, resulting in greater cost sharing. This study demonstrates that expenditure on items other than seeds accounts for the majority of reproductive allocation in flowering plants. Yet, far more literature exists on seed mass variation than on investment in accessory structures. We found a proportional relationship between accessory costs and seed mass that warrants further investigation within the context of selection on margin returns on investment.
Leaf size and foraging for light in a sclerophyll woodland
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-09-2002
The influence of tissue phosphate on plant flammability
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2008
The self-thinning rule
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 1984
A synthesis of bacterial and archaeal phenotypic trait data
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-06-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-020-0497-4
Abstract: A synthesis of phenotypic and quantitative genomic traits is provided for bacteria and archaea, in the form of a scripted, reproducible workflow that standardizes and merges 26 sources. The resulting unified dataset covers 14 phenotypic traits, 5 quantitative genomic traits, and 4 environmental characteristics for approximately 170,000 strain-level and 15,000 species-aggregated records. It spans all habitats including soils, marine and fresh waters and sediments, host-associated and thermal. Trait data can find use in clarifying major dimensions of ecological strategy variation across species. They can also be used in conjunction with species and abundance s ling to characterize trait mixtures in communities and responses of traits along environmental gradients.
Does a latitudinal gradient in seedling survival favour larger seeds in the tropics?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-08-2004
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
Seed size and plant growth form as factors in dispersal spectra
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-1990
DOI: 10.2307/1938268
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.
Seed size and phylogeny in six temperate floras
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 09-1995
DOI: 10.1086/285804
Classifying plants into groups on the basis of associations of individual traits - evidence from Australian semi-arid woodlands
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 09-1992
DOI: 10.2307/2260687
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.
Seedling survival and seed size
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-05-2004
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
On research priorities to advance understanding of the safety–efficiency tradeoff in xylem
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-06-2016
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.14043
Fish larvae settling in seagrass
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-1987
Trait dimensions in bacteria and archaea compared to vascular plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-04-2021
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.13742
Abstract: Bacteria and archaea have very different ecology compared to plants. One similarity, though, is that much discussion of their ecological strategies has invoked concepts such as oligotrophy or stress tolerance. For plants, so‐called ‘trait ecology’—strategy description reframed along measurable trait dimensions—has made global syntheses possible. Among widely measured trait dimensions for bacteria and archaea three main axes are evident. Maximum growth rate in association with rRNA operon copy number expresses a rate‐yield trade‐off that is analogous to the acquisitive–conservative spectrum in plants, though underpinned by different trade‐offs. Genome size in association with signal transduction expresses versatility. Cell size has influence on diffusive uptake and on relative wall costs. These trait dimensions, and potentially others, offer promise for interpreting ecology. At the same time, there are very substantial differences from plant trait ecology. Traits and their underpinning trade‐offs are different. Also, bacteria and archaea use a variety of different substrates. Bacterial strategies can be viewed both through the facet of substrate‐use pathways, and also through the facet of quantitative traits such as maximum growth rate. Preliminary evidence shows the quantitative traits vary widely within substrate‐use pathways. This indicates they convey information complementary to substrate use.
Seed dispersal spectra
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-1990
DOI: 10.2307/3235789
Abstract: Abstract. We compare the dispersal spectra of diaspores from varied plant communities in Australia, New Zealand, and North America, assigning dispersal mode to each diaspore type on the basis of apparent morphological adaptations. Species with ballistic and external dispersal modes were uncommon in most communities we surveyed. Ant dispersal was also rather uncommon, except in some Australian sclerophyll vegetation types. The frequency of vertebrate dispersal ranged up to 60% of the flora, the highest frequencies occurring in New Zealand forests. Wind dispersal ranged as high as 70% of the flora, with the highest values in Alaska, but usually comprised 10–30% of the flora. Many species in most communities had diaspores with no special morphological device for dispersal. Physiognomically similar vegetation types indifferentbiogeographic regions usually had somewhat dissimilar dispersal spectra. The frequency of dispersal by vertebrates often increased and the frequency of species with no special dispersal device decreased along gradients of increasing vertical ersity of vegetation structure. Elevation and moisture gradients also exhibited shifts in dispersal spectra. Within Australia, vertebrate‐ and wind‐dispersal increased in frequency along a soil‐fertility gradient, and dispersal by ants and by no special device decreased. Habitat breadths (across plant communities) and microhabitat breadths (within communities) for species of each major dispersal type did not show consistent differences, in general. Ant‐dispersed species often had lower cover‐values than other species in several Australian vegetation types. We discuss the ecological bases of these differences in dispersal spectra in terms of the availability of dispersal agents, seed size, and other ecological constraints. Seed size is suggested to be one ecological factor that is probably of general relevance to the evolution of dispersal syndromes.
Broad anatomical variation within a narrow wood density range
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 23-04-2015
The relationship between stem biomechanics and wood density is modified by rainfall in 32 Australian woody plant species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-11-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2009.03088.X
Abstract: Commentary p348
Costs of acquiring phosphorus by vascular land plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-01-2018
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.14967
Abstract: Content Summary 1420 I. Introduction 1421 II. Root adaptations that influence P acquisition 1422 III. Costs of P acquisition: general 1423 IV. Costs of P acquisition that are independent of soil P concentrations 1423 V. Costs of P acquisition that increase as soil P concentrations decline 1424 VI. Discussion and conclusions 1424 Acknowledgements 1425 References 1425 SUMMARY: We compare carbon (and hence energy) costs of the different modes of phosphorus (P) acquisition by vascular land plants. Phosphorus-acquisition modes are considered to be mechanisms of plants together with their root symbionts and structures such as cluster roots involved in mobilising or absorbing P. Phosphorus sources considered are soluble and insoluble inorganic and organic pools. Costs include operating the P-acquisition mechanisms, and resource requirements to construct and maintain them. For most modes, costs increase as the relevant soil P concentration declines. Costs can thus be ided into a component incurred irrespective of soil P concentration, and a component describing how quickly costs increase as the soil P concentration declines. Differences in sensitivity of costs to soil P concentration arise mainly from how economically mycorrhizal fungal hyphae or roots that explore the soil volume are constructed, and from costs of exudates that hydrolyse or mobilise insoluble P forms. In general, modes of acquisition requiring least carbon at high soil P concentrations experience a steeper increase in costs as soil P concentrations decline. The relationships between costs and concentrations suggest some reasons why different modes coexist, and why the mixture of acquisition modes differs between sites.
Functional distinctiveness of major plant lineages
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-02-2014
Bark functional ecology: evidence for tradeoffs, functional coordination, and environment producing bark diversity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-10-2013
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.12541
Abstract: The causes underlying bark ersity are unclear. Variation has been frequently attributed to environmental differences across sites. However, variation may also result from tradeoffs and coordination between bark's multiple functions. Bark traits may also covary with wood and leaf traits as part of major dimensions of plant variation. To assess hypotheses regarding tradeoffs and functional coordination, we measured bark traits reflecting protection, storage, mechanics, and photosynthesis in branches of 90 species spanning a wide phylogenetic and environmental range. We also tested associations between bark, wood, and leaf traits. We partitioned trait variation within species, and within and across communities to quantify variation associated with across‐site differences. We observed associations between bark mechanics and storage, density and thickness, and thickness and photosynthetic activity. Increasing bark thickness contributed significantly to stiffer stems and greater water storage. Bark density, water content, and mechanics covaried strongly with the equivalent wood traits, and to a lesser degree with leaf size, xylem conductivity, and vessel diameter. Most variation was observed within sites and had low phylogenetic signal. Compared with relatively minor across‐site differences, tradeoffs and coordination among functions of bark, leaves, and wood are likely to be major and overlooked factors shaping bark ecology and evolution.
Drought damage and recovery - A conceptual model [2]
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-09-2003
Safety and streamlining of woody shoots in wind: an empirical study across 39 species in tropical Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-10-2011
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2011.03887.X
Abstract: See also the Commentary by Anten and Sterck
Why do more plant species use ants for dispersal on infertile compared with fertile soils?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-1991
The maleness of larger angiosperm flowers
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 04-05-2020
Abstract: Flower biomass varies widely across the angiosperms. Each plant species invests a given amount of biomass to construct its sex organs. A comparative understanding of how this limited resource is partitioned among primary (male and female structures) and secondary (petals and sepals) sexual organs on hermaphrodite species can shed light on general evolutionary processes behind flower evolution. Here, we use allometries relating different flower biomass components across species to test the existence of broad allocation patterns across the angiosperms. Based on a global dataset with flower biomass spanning five orders of magnitude, we show that heavier angiosperm flowers tend to be male-biased and invest strongly in petals to promote pollen export, while lighter flowers tend to be female-biased and invest more in sepals to insure their own seed set. This result demonstrates that larger flowers are not simple carbon copies of small ones, indicating that sexual selection via male–male competition is an important driver of flower biomass evolution and sex allocation strategies across angiosperms.
Parenchyma abundance in wood of evergreen trees varies independently of nutrients
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 19-02-2020
Recruitment and survival in Atriplex vesicaria populations in semi‐arid western New South Wales, 1977–1987
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-1991
States and transitions: The trajectory of an idea, 1970-2010
Publisher: Brill
Date: 06-05-2011
Abstract: State-and-transition language for ecosystem dynamics was articulated in a 1989 paper written by Imanuel Noy-Meir in collaboration with Westoby and Walker. That paper has been surprisingly influential considering that the publication it appeared in, Journal of Range Management , serves a relatively small community of researchers. Here we trace the wider history within which the paper sits, both the context that led up to its being written and its influence subsequently. Our aim is to explain Noy-Meir's distinctive and constructive role, at several points in the history.
The effect of clipping on self‐thinning in Trifolium pratense
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-1980
Cross-species patterns in the coordination between leaf and stem traits, and their implications for plant hydraulics
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2006
Three of a kind
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-1985
DOI: 10.1038/317281D0
Differences in seedling growth behaviour among species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 1999
Influence of four major plant traits on average height, leaf‐area cover, net primary productivity, and biomass density in single‐species forests: a theoretical investigation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-10-2010
Alternative height strategies among 45 dicot rain forest species from tropical Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2005
Regeneration after fire in Triodia R. Br
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-1999
Sequential elastic recovery stress edge-smoothed finite element method for lower-bound limit determination of structures
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-05-2021
Shifts in trait-combinations along rainfall and phosphorus gradients
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2000
Seed size and plant strategy across the whole life cycle
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-02-2006
Effects of an epiphytic alga on abundances of fish and decapods associated with the seagrass Zostera capricorni
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-1987
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.
Artificial seagrass
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-1985
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.
Seedling relative growth rate and its components in relation to seed size
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 04-1996
DOI: 10.2307/2389841
Interrelations among pressure-volume curve traits across species and water availability gradients
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-05-2006
Evolutionary coordination between offspring size at independence and adult size
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-12-2009
Dry mass costs of deploying leaf area in relation to leaf size
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2005
Convergence of elaiosomes and insect prey
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 06-1994
DOI: 10.2307/2389829
On misinterpreting the phylogenetic correction
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 06-1995
DOI: 10.2307/2261605
Past, present and future of state and transition language
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1071/RJ20020
Coordinated shifts in allocation among reproductive tissues across 14 coexisting plant species
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 24-05-2017
DOI: 10.1101/141473
Abstract: Plant species differ in the amounts of energy allocated to different reproductive tissues, driving differences in their ecology and energy flows within ecosystems. While it is widely agreed that energy allocation is key to reproductive outcomes, few studies have estimated how reproductive effort (RE) is partitioned among different pools, for multiple species in a community. In plants, RE can be partitioned in several meaningful ways: seed versus non-seed tissues into flowers that form seeds and those that fail to develop into pre-versus post-pollination tissues, and into successful versus aborted ovules. Evolutionary theory suggests several hypotheses about how these tissues should be coordinated across species. To quantify variation in allocation to different reproductive tissues, we collected detailed RE measurements for a year from 14 perennial species in a recurrent-fire coastal heath community in eastern Australia. Overall we found that total accessory costs – the proportion of RE not directly invested in provisioning the seed – were very large, varying from 95.8% to 99.8% across the study species. These results suggest that studies using seed or fruit production as measures of RE may underestimate it by 10-to 500-fold. We propose a suitable alternative that well-approximates true RE. When comparing species, we found strong support for three evolutionary trade-offs that are predicted to arise when a given energy pool is ided into different tissue masses and counts across species: 1) between successful pollen-attraction costs and mature ovule count, 2) between total reproductive costs and seed count, and 3) between seedset and relative investment in pollen-attraction costs. As a result of these trade-offs, species were also predicted to show coordinated shifts in the amounts invested in floral construction, in seedset and seed size. These shifts in investment were indeed observed, with the amount allocated to discarded tissues increasing with seed size and the amount allocated to pollen-attraction decreasing with seed size. It is already well-established that the seed size axis aligns with the colonization-competition life history spectrum here we show that relative construction costs of pollen-attraction versus provisioning tissues and seedset are also part of this trajectory, expanding our understanding of the relatives sizes of floral and fruiting structures observed across angiosperms.
Evolution in a laboratory host parasitoid system and its effect on population kinetics
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 10-1980
Abstract: A laboratory system was developed that allowed populations of the house fly, Musca domestica , and its hymenopterous, wasp parasitoid, Nasonia vitripennis , to interact and fluctuate in numbers, subject only to an upper limit on Musca density. In one (experimental) treatment, the selection pressure from Nasonia was allowed to operate, while in the control all Musca adults were replaced in each generation by in iduals from a Musca population not exposed to Nasonia . Evolution for resistance of Musca to Nasonia became noticeable within four generations in the experimental treatment. Measured changes finally included increased fly pupal weight (although larval development period was not allowed to increase), less time spent as pupa, increased pupal mortality, and reduced fecundity of adults. Total per-generation increase of both control and experimental Nasonia was much reduced on experimental compared with control Musca . This was caused by reductions both in the longevity of female Nasonia and in the number of progeny they produced each day. From early in the experiment the increased resistance of Musca produced lower Nasonia densities in the experimental treatment. During the first 20 or so generations no difference could be detected in mean Musca density between the two treatments. After that time the density of adult Musca became greater, and fluctuated less, in the experimental than in the control treatment. This situation continued until the experiment ended at 50 generations.
Leaf-size divergence along rainfall and soil-nutrient gradients
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2003
Fibre wall and lumen fractions drive wood density variation across 24 Australian angiosperms
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 2013
Exploring phosphate effects on leaf flammability using a physical chemistry model
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.1071/WF09065
Abstract: Some plants have traits that cause them to be more flammable than others, influencing wildfire spread and fire regimes. Some of these plant traits have been identified through laboratory-scale experiments. We built a numerical model that could quantify the extent of these effects on flammability. Here we present that model and use it to investigate the effect of phosphate content on the flammability of leaves. The model used finite-element methods and was based on heat transfer and thermal decomposition kinetics. Predictions were compared with three laboratory experiments involving ignition of leaf or cellulose s les. We then ran simulations of two situations through which leaf phosphate could influence wildfire spread: horizontal fire spread and crowning. The ignition time and maximum fuel gap that could be bridged by a flame front was predicted. Two key results emerged. (1) The importance of leaf phosphate in laboratory studies of ignition depends on the rate of s le heating, with the strongest effect under slow heating. (2) In the context of wildfires, phosphate was predicted to have modest effects compared with other plant traits influencing moisture content, leaf construction and angle of display.
Effects of Supplementary Soil Nutrients on Hummock Grasses
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1994
DOI: 10.1071/BT9940687
Abstract: Hummocks of Triodia basedowii E. Pritz, T. pungens R.Br. and Plectrachne schinzii Henr. were treated with ash and with standard and high applications of slow-release fertiliser. Following rain and the ensuing growth and flowering, the soils and the hummocks were s led for biomass and for nutrient content, and compared to controls. In a similar but separate experiment, seed set in inflorescences was assessed for hummocks treated with standard fertiliser application, for hummocks treated by removal of neighbouring hummocks, and for controls. In the absence of nutrient addition, total topsoil nitrogen concentration was higher under hummocks than outside, whereas total topsoil phosphorus concentration was lower under hummocks than outside. The absolute amount of phosphorus in the hummock itself was insufficient to account for the depletion of phosphorus in topsoil under the hummock. Available soil phosphorus was about 1-4% of total phosphorus, and was generally highest towards the edge of hummocks. Additions of ash did not significantly affect soil nutrients, while addition of fertiliser produced substantial increases in total nitrogen and in available and total phosphorus. The increases did not extend to the area surrounding the hummock. The increases in soil nutrients did not result in significant increases in new green growth, or in inflorescence biomass or number. However, nutrients appear to have been taken up into the plants, including into old tissue, because there were increases in nutrient concentration in plant tissues, which sometimes were statistically significant and sometimes not. In the second experiment, neither increased soil nutrients nor removal of neighbours increased the number of inflorescences produced, or the proportion of florets that gave rise to filled grain.
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
Shoot growth of woody trees and shrubs is predicted by maximum plant height and associated traits
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-09-2017
Leaf hydraulic vulnerability to drought is linked to site water availability across a broad range of species and climates
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 08-07-2014
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCU131
Selective forces exerted by vertebrate herbivores on plants
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-1989
DOI: 10.1016/0169-5347(89)90062-1
Abstract: The question of whether herbivory can benefit plants remains controversial. A series of papers on the effects of lesser snow geese grazing on grasses in northern Canada is throwing new light on this problem.
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.
Plant height and evolutionary games
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2003
Simple traits do not predict grazing response in Australian dry shrublands and woodlands
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2004
An earlier formulation of the genetic conflict hypothesis of genomic imprinting
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-2006
DOI: 10.1038/NG0306-271
Angiosperm wood structure: Global patterns in vessel anatomy and their relation to wood density and potential conductivity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2010
DOI: 10.3732/AJB.0900178
Abstract: Woody stems comprise a large biological carbon fraction and determine water transport between roots and leaves their structure and function can influence both carbon and hydrological cycles. While angiosperm wood anatomy and density determine hydraulic conductivity and mechanical strength, little is known about interrelations across many species. We compiled a global data set comprising two anatomical traits for 3005 woody angiosperms: mean vessel lumen area (Ā) and number per unit area (N). From these, we calculated vessel lumen fraction (F = ĀN) and size to number ratio (S = Ā/N), a new vessel composition index. We examined the extent to which F and S influenced potential sapwood specific stem conductivity (K(S)) and wood density (D dry mass/fresh volume). F and S varied essentially independently across angiosperms. Variation in K(S) was driven primarily by S, and variation in D was virtually unrelated to F and S. Tissue density outside vessel lumens (D(N)) must predominantly influence D. High S should confer faster K(S) but incur greater freeze-thaw embolism risk. F should also affect K(S), and both F and D(N) should influence mechanical strength, capacitance, and construction costs. Improved theory and quantification are needed to better understand ecological costs and benefits of these three distinct dimensions.
The links between leaf hydraulic vulnerability to drought and key aspects of leaf venation and xylem anatomy among 26 Australian woody angiosperms from contrasting climates
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 14-04-2018
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCY051
Habitat filtering determines the functional niche occupancy of plant communities worldwide
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-05-2017
A leaf-height-seed (LHS) plant ecology strategy scheme
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 1998
Understanding ecological variation across species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-05-2013
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.12345
A general model for the scaling of offspring size and adult size
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 09-2008
DOI: 10.1086/589889
Abstract: Understanding evolutionary coordination among different life-history traits is a key challenge for ecology and evolution. Here we develop a general quantitative model predicting how offspring size should scale with adult size by combining a simple model for life-history evolution with a frequency-dependent survivorship model. The key innovation is that larger offspring are afforded three different advantages during ontogeny: higher survivorship per time, a shortened juvenile phase, and advantage during size-competitive growth. In this model, it turns out that size-asymmetric advantage during competition is the factor driving evolution toward larger offspring sizes. For simplified and limiting cases, the model is shown to produce the same predictions as the previously existing theory on which it is founded. The explicit treatment of different survival advantages has biologically important new effects, mainly through an interaction between total maternal investment in reproduction and the duration of competitive growth. This goes on to explain alternative allometries between log offspring size and log adult size, as observed in mammals (slope = 0.95) and plants (slope = 0.54). Further, it suggests how these differences relate quantitatively to specific biological processes during recruitment. In these ways, the model generalizes across previous theory and provides explanations for some differences between major taxa.
Evolutionary divergence of leaf width and its correlates
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2015
DOI: 10.3732/AJB.1400379
Abstract: • Premise of the study: The question why leaf dimensions vary so much between species has long puzzled ecologists. Presumably, variation arises from selective forces acting on leaf function but which selective forces and which leaf functions? This investigation assesses the consistency of ergence in plant traits and habitat variables in association with leaf width ergence in the flora of NSW, Australia. • Methods: More than 80 traits and habitat variables were measured for 25 independent evolutionary ergence events (PICs). Each PIC was represented by two related plant species that had erged substantially in leaf width. Outgroup species provided indications of the direction of ergence. Most PICs were within genus, so ergences represent relatively recent evolutionary events. • Key results: No plant traits or habitat variables were 100% consistently associated with a ergence in leaf width, and surprisingly few erged in a consistent direction significantly more than what might be expected by chance. This surprising lack of consistent ergence with leaf width contrasted with the result that many of these traits and habitat variables were correlated with leaf width across all species in our data set and in line with correlations reported from other studies. Subcategorizing PICs according to the probable direction of leaf width ergence did not improve consistency. • Conclusions: These results indicate that evolutionarily recent leaf width ergence events are not tightly tied to ergences in other leaf traits or in environmental situations, despite the broad correlations that have been observed across many species. Rather, cross species correlations are underpinned by earlier ergence events in the phylogeny.
Seed addition experiments are more likely to increase recruitment in larger-seeded species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-2002
Selective forces in the emergence of the seed habit
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 11-1989
Self-thinning driven by leaf area not by weight [12]
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 1977
DOI: 10.1038/265330A0
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.
Aspects of the dynamics of the seed‐banks and seedling populations of Acacia victoriae and Cassia spp. in arid western New South Wales
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-1987
Influence of population structure on self-thinning of plant populations
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 06-1986
DOI: 10.2307/2260259
Partitioning mortality into growth-dependent and growth-independent hazards across 203 tropical tree species
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 16-11-2018
Abstract: We present a model that partitions rates of tropical tree mortality into growth-dependent and growth-independent hazards. This creates the opportunity to examine the relative contributions of within-species and across-species variation on tropical tree mortality rates, but also how species traits affect each hazard. We parameterize this model using ,000 observed survival records collected over a 15-y period at Barro Colorado Island, Panama from more than 180,000 in iduals across 203 species. We show that marginal carbon budgets are a major contributor to tree death on Barro Colorado Island. Moreover, we found that while species’ light demand, maximum diameter at breast height (dbh), and wood density affected tree mortality in different ways, they explained only a small fraction of the total variability observed among species.
How species boundaries are determined
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2017
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.
Hypotheses on seed size
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 05-1994
DOI: 10.1086/285638
Predicting plant species' responses to grazing
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2001
Plant ecological strategies
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2007
The worldwide leaf economics spectrum
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-2004
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE02403
Leaves at low versus high rainfall
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-08-2002
Emergent shapes of trait-based competition functions from resource-based models
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 08-2021
DOI: 10.1086/714868
Functional recovery of secondary tropical forests
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 29-11-2021
Abstract: Tropical forests disappear rapidly through deforestation but also have the potential to regrow naturally through a process called secondary succession. To advance successional theory, it is essential to understand how these secondary forests and their assembly vary across broad spatial scales. We do so by synthesizing continental-scale patterns in succession using a functional trait approach. We show that the start and pathway of succession varies with climatic water availability. In dry forests, succession is driven by drought tolerance traits and in wet forests by shade tolerance traits. Based on these successional principles, we propose an ecologically sound strategy to improve active forest restoration.
Seed and seedling biology in relation to modelling vegetation dynamics under global climate change
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1992
DOI: 10.1071/BT9920599
Abstract: The distribution of many plant species will change with global climate change, depending on their ability to disperse into, and establish in, new communities. Past migrations of species under climate change have been an order of magnitude slower than the rate of predicted climate change for the next century. The limited evidence available suggests that chance long distance dispersal events will be critically important in determining migration rates. The JABOWA-derived gap replacement models and vital attributes/FATE models were examined, and the dispersal and establishment processes necessary to make improved projections of vegetation dynamics under climate change using these models were investigated. The minimum modifications of these models required to incorporate directional migration of species are described. To predict establishment success of species, it was suggested that a more fundamental understanding is needed of how establishment ability under different conditions relates to seed and seedling attributes and how this may be affected by elevated CO2. Finally, an examination was carried out of whether plant functional types based on vegetative attributes (used to model the response of adult plants) are correlated with functional types based on seed and seedling attributes. Available evidence suggests that the two sets of attributes are not strongly correlated consequently, models of vegetation dynamics will need to incorporate seed biology explicitly.
A note on combining two methods of dispersal‐for‐distance
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-1981
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.
Multitrait successional forest dynamics enable diverse competitive coexistence
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 10-03-2017
Abstract: Walking through any forest, one is struck by the variety of plant forms coexisting. Given that all plants compete for the same basic resources, why is there not a single winner? Our study shows that when key ingredients common to all forests are accounted for—including disturbance events, competition for light, and two widely observed trait-based tradeoffs—models of niche differentiation predict forests of considerably greater ersity than was previously thought possible. In particular, our model accurately predicts the proliferation of species occupying niche space in low light, a feature of tropical forests that motivated the so-called neutral theory of bio ersity and biogeography. The presented results thereby provide a platform for understanding ersity in forests worldwide.
Sprouting by semi-arid plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-09-2004
An evolutionary attractor model for sapwood cross section in relation to leaf area
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.JTBI.2012.03.008
Abstract: Sapwood cross-sectional area per unit leaf area (SA:LA) is an influential trait that plants coordinate with physical environment and with other traits. We develop theory for SA:LA and also for root surface area per leaf area (RA:LA) on the premise that plants maximizing the surplus of revenue over costs should have competitive advantage. SA:LA is predicted to increase in water-relations environments that reduce photosynthetic revenue, including low soil water potential, high water vapor pressure deficit (VPD), and low atmospheric CO(2). Because sapwood has costs, SA:LA adjustment does not completely offset difficult water relations. Where sapwood costs are large, as in tall plants, optimal SA:LA may actually decline with (say) high VPD. Large soil-to-root resistance caps the benefits that can be obtained from increasing SA:LA. Where a plant can adjust water-absorbing surface area of root per leaf area (RA:LA) as well as SA:LA, optimal RA:SA is not affected by VPD, CO(2) or plant height. If selection favours increased height more so than increased revenue-minus-cost, then height is predicted to rise substantially under improved water-relations environments such as high-CO(2) atmospheres. Evolutionary-attractor theory for SA:LA and RA:LA complements models that take whole-plant conductivity per leaf area as a parameter.
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.
Is there a latitudinal gradient in seed production?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2009
Bivariate line-fitting methods for allometry
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-03-2006
Leaf size and angle vary widely across species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-04-2003
DOI: 10.1046/J.1469-8137.2003.00765.X
Abstract: • Architecture can vary widely across species. Both steeper leaf angles and increased self-shading are thought to reduce potential carbon gain by decreasing total light interception. An alternative hypothesis is that steeper leaf angles have evolved to improve day-long carbon gain by emphasising light interception from low angles. • Here we relate variation in architectural properties (leaf angle and leaf size) to cross-species patterns of leaf display, light capture and simulated carbon gain in branching-units of 38 perennial species occurring at two sites in Australian forest. Architectural comparison was made possible by combining 3D-digitising with the architecture model YPLANT. • Species with shallow angled leaves had greater daily light interception and potentially greater carbon gain. Self-shading, rather than leaf angle, explained most variance between species in light capture and potential carbon gain. Species average leaf size was the most important determinant of self-shading. • Our results provide the first cross-species evidence that steeper leaf angles function to reduce exposure to excess light levels during the middle of the day, more than to maximise carbon gain.
Least-cost input mixtures of water and nitrogen for photosynthesis
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 2003
DOI: 10.1086/344920
Costs of height gain in rainforest saplings
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 27-07-2009
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCP185
Species richness in vascular vegetation of the West Head, New South Wales
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-1983
Spatial scaling of microbial eukaryote diversity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-2004
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE03034
Abstract: Patterns in the spatial distribution of organisms provide important information about mechanisms that regulate the ersity of life and the complexity of ecosystems. Although microorganisms may comprise much of the Earth's bio ersity and have critical roles in biogeochemistry and ecosystem functioning, little is known about their spatial ersification. Here we present quantitative estimates of microbial community turnover at local and regional scales using the largest spatially explicit microbial ersity data set available (> 10(6) s le pairs). Turnover rates were small across large geographical distances, of similar magnitude when measured within distinct habitats, and did not increase going from one vegetation type to another. The taxa-area relationship of these terrestrial microbial eukaryotes was relatively flat (slope z = 0.074) and consistent with those reported in aquatic habitats. This suggests that despite high local ersity, microorganisms may have only moderate regional ersity. We show how turnover patterns can be used to project taxa-area relationships up to whole continents. Taxa dissimilarities across continents and between them would strengthen these projections. Such data do not yet exist, but would be feasible to collect.
Fame, glory and neglect in meta-analyses
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2011
Comparative evolutionary ecology of seed size
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-1992
Variation in seagrass height and density over a wide spatial scale
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-1986
What does 'ecology' mean?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-1997
Tradeoffs between height growth rate, stem persistence and maximum height among plant species in a post‐fire succession
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-09-2005
Branch thinning and the large-scale, self-similar structure of trees
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 07-2018
DOI: 10.1086/697429
Abstract: Branch formation in trees has an inherent tendency toward exponential growth, but exponential growth in the number of branches cannot continue indefinitely. It has been suggested that trees balance this tendency toward expansion by also losing branches grown in previous growth cycles. Here, we present a model for branch formation and branch loss during ontogeny that builds on the phenomenological assumption of a branch carrying capacity. The model allows us to derive approximate analytical expressions for the number of tips on a branch, the distribution of growth modules within a branch, and the rate and size distribution of tree wood litter produced. Although limited availability of data makes empirical corroboration challenging, we show that our model can fit field observations of red maple (Acer rubrum) and note that the age distribution of discarded branches predicted by our model is qualitatively similar to an empirically observed distribution of dead and abscised branches of balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera). By showing how a simple phenomenological assumption-that the number of branches a tree can maintain is limited-leads directly to predictions on branching structure and the rate and size distribution of branch loss, these results potentially enable more explicit modeling of woody tissues in ecosystems worldwide, with implications for the buildup of flammable fuel, nutrient cycling, and understanding of plant growth.
A fresh framework for the ecology of arid Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2011
Field experiments on mechanisms influencing species boundary movement under climate change
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-04-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S11104-022-05411-7
Abstract: Currently knowledge is weak about which plant species boundaries are determined directly by climate and soil factors, versus which are mediated by biotic interactions, such as exclusion by superior competitors or by pathogens. Under moving climate zones the difference is important. For ex le, will warm boundaries shrink poleward of their own accord, or only following invasion by other species? What research will most effectively strengthen our understanding of this fundamental issue in ecology? Traditionally the required experiment has been transplant beyond the species boundary, together with density manipulation of putative competitors, herbivores, pathogens or facilitators. But now climate zones are being moved across species distributions, creating a different sort of experiment. In order to learn efficiently from this massive inadvertent experiment, exposure to new climate needs to be combined with experimental manipulation of other factors. Because range extensions are likely to be spatially patchy, these experiments need to be geographically extensive, to be sustained over 2–4 decades, and to be twinned with wide-area population monitoring via drones and other remote sensing. Highest priorities for experimental manipulation would be removal of competition, and provision of seedlings. Highest priorities for locations would be zones where vegetation physiognomy changes, such as woodlands into grasslands, or rainforest into fire-prone forest.
Accessory costs of seed production and the evolution of angiosperms
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-08-2012
DOI: 10.1111/J.1558-5646.2011.01425.X
Abstract: Accessory costs of reproduction frequently equal or exceed direct investment in offspring, and can limit the evolution of small offspring sizes. Early angiosperms had minimum seed sizes, an order of magnitude smaller than their contemporaries. It has been proposed that changes to reproductive features at the base of the angiosperm clade reduced accessory costs thus removing the fitness disadvantage of small seeds. We measured accessory costs of reproduction in 25 extant gymnosperms and angiosperms, to test whether angiosperms can produce small seeds more economically than gymnosperms. Total accessory costs scaled isometrically to seed mass for angiosperms but less than isometrically for gymnosperms, so that smaller seeds were proportionally more expensive for gymnosperms to produce. In particular, costs of abortions and packaging structures were significantly higher in gymnosperms. Also, the relationship between seed:ovule ratio and seed size was negative in angiosperms but positive in gymnosperms. We argue that the carpel was a key evolutionary innovation reducing accessory costs in angiosperms by allowing sporophytic control of pre- and postzygotic mate selection and timing of resource allocation. The resulting reduction in costs of aborting unfertilized ovules or genetically inferior embryos would have lowered total reproductive costs enabling early angiosperms to evolve small seed sizes and short generation times.
Seed mass and the evolution of early-seedling etiolation
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 10-1999
DOI: 10.1086/303245
Abstract: The influence of seed mass on the evolution of seedling-foraging strategies for light acquisition under deep shade was assessed in a comparative study of etiolation behavior. This was done across 50 Australian species varying in seed reserve mass by eight orders of magnitude during the first week after germination. Proportional increase in hypocotyl length in shade compared to light was similar across the range of seed reserve mass. Etiolation did not lead to increase in hypocotyl length per wet mass, in other words, etiolated hypocotyls were not thinner. However, hypocotyl length per dry mass did increase, more so in smaller-seeded species. Thus, part of the hypocotyl elongation was because of increased water content, which would increase vulnerability to loss of turgor. There was also reallocation of dry matter from root to hypocotyl, again more so in smaller-seeded species, which would decrease anchorage strength and increase vulnerability to soil drying. Results were very similar when considered as correlated evolutionary ergences, compared to the cross-species patterns. The higher-risk etiolation behavior of smaller-seeded species can be understood through their having little to lose. Because they hold less reserve resource uncommitted and attempt a faster initial growth rate, their chances of sustained longevity in shade below the compensation point are very low.
Investment in reproduction for 14 iteroparous perennials is large and associated with other life‐history and functional traits
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-06-2018
Latitude, seed predation and seed mass
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2003
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.
Dynamics and population structure of Acacia victoriae Benth
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-1994
Motivating data contributions via a distinct career currency
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 03-03-2021
Abstract: If collecting research data is perceived as poorly rewarded compared to data synthesis and analysis, this can slow overall research progress via two effects. People who have already collected data may be slow to make it openly accessible. Also, researchers may reallocate effort from collecting fresh data to synthesizing and analysing data already accessible. Here, we advocate for a second career currency in the form of data contributions statements embedded within applications for jobs, promotions and research grants. This workable step forward would provide for peer opinion to operate across thousands of selection and promotion committees and granting panels. In this way, fair valuation of data contributions relative to publications could emerge.
Phylogenetic biome conservatism on a global scale
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-02-2009
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE07764
Abstract: How and why organisms are distributed as they are has long intrigued evolutionary biologists. The tendency for species to retain their ancestral ecology has been demonstrated in distributions on local and regional scales, but the extent of ecological conservatism over tens of millions of years and across continents has not been assessed. Here we show that biome stasis at speciation has outweighed biome shifts by a ratio of more than 25:1, by inferring ancestral biomes for an ecologically erse s le of more than 11,000 plant species from around the Southern Hemisphere. Stasis was also prevalent in transocean colonizations. Availability of a suitable biome could have substantially influenced which lineages establish on more than one landmass, in addition to the influence of the rarity of the dispersal events themselves. Conversely, the taxonomic composition of biomes has probably been strongly influenced by the rarity of species' transitions between biomes. This study has implications for the future because if clades have inherently limited capacity to shift biomes, then their evolutionary potential could be strongly compromised by biome contraction as climate changes.
The soil seed bank of Triodia basedowii in relation to time since fire
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-1988
Funding the bud bank
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-05-2004
Seed size, pollination costs and angiosperm success
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-1991
DOI: 10.1007/BF02214230
Myrmecochory in sclerophyll vegetation of the West Head, New South Wales
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-1981
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
Cell size, genome size, and maximum growth rate are near‐independent dimensions of ecological variation across bacteria and archaea
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-03-2021
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.7290
Leaf mechanical resistance in plant trait databases
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 02-11-2016
DOI: 10.1093/AOB/MCV149
Adaptive thinking and medicine
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 1994
Small-seeded species produce more seeds per square metre of canopy per year, but not per individual per lifetime
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-05-2004
Foundations for the future: A long-term plan for Australian ecosystem science
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-09-2014
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12188
Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-12-2015
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE16476
Abstract: Phenotypic traits and their associated trade-offs have been shown to have globally consistent effects on in idual plant physiological functions, but how these effects scale up to influence competition, a key driver of community assembly in terrestrial vegetation, has remained unclear. Here we use growth data from more than 3 million trees in over 140,000 plots across the world to show how three key functional traits--wood density, specific leaf area and maximum height--consistently influence competitive interactions. Fast maximum growth of a species was correlated negatively with its wood density in all biomes, and positively with its specific leaf area in most biomes. Low wood density was also correlated with a low ability to tolerate competition and a low competitive effect on neighbours, while high specific leaf area was correlated with a low competitive effect. Thus, traits generate trade-offs between performance with competition versus performance without competition, a fundamental ingredient in the classical hypothesis that the coexistence of plant species is enabled via differentiation in their successional strategies. Competition within species was stronger than between species, but an increase in trait dissimilarity between species had little influence in weakening competition. No benefit of dissimilarity was detected for specific leaf area or wood density, and only a weak benefit for maximum height. Our trait-based approach to modelling competition makes generalization possible across the forest ecosystems of the world and their highly erse species composition.
Scaling-up from leaf to canopy-aggregate properties in sclerophyll shrub species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-04-2006
Comment on A Brief History of Seed Size
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 04-11-2005
The macroecology of Australian frogs
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-1998
Climate change as a threatening process
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-07-2006
Weak coordination among petiole, leaf, vein, and gas-exchange traits across Australian angiosperm species and its possible implications
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-12-2016
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.1860
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
Effects of plant hydraulic traits on the flammability of live fine canopy fuels
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-02-2021
Embryology of early abortion due to limited maternal resources in Pisum sativum L
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 06-1987
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.
Strategic traits of bacteria and archaea vary widely within substrate-use groups
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 19-10-2021
Abstract: Quantitative traits such as maximum growth rate and cell radial diameter are one facet of ecological strategy variation across bacteria and archaea. Another facet is substrate-use pathways, such as iron reduction or methylotrophy. Here, we ask how these two facets intersect, using a large compilation of data for culturable species and examining seven quantitative traits (genome size, signal transduction protein count, histidine kinase count, growth temperature, temperature-adjusted maximum growth rate, cell radial diameter and 16S rRNA operon copy number). Overall, quantitative trait variation within groups of organisms possessing a particular substrate-use pathway was very broad, outweighing differences between substrate-use groups. Although some substrate-use groups had significantly different means for some quantitative traits, standard deviation of quantitative trait values within each substrate-use pathway mostly averaged between 1.6 and 1.8 times larger than standard deviation across group means. Most likely, this wide variation reflects ecological strategy: for ex le, fast maximum growth rate is likely to express an early successional or copiotrophic strategy, and maximum growth varies widely within most substrate-use pathways. In general, it appears that these quantitative traits express different and complementary information about ecological strategy, compared with substrate use.
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.
Perspectives on the scientific legacy of J. Philip Grime
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-08-2023
Abstract: Perhaps as much as any other scientist in the 20th century, J.P. Grime transformed the study of plant ecology and helped shepherd the field toward international prominence as a nexus of ideas related to global environmental change. Editors at the Journal of Ecology asked a group of senior plant ecologists to comment on Grime's scientific legacy. This commentary piece includes in idual responses of 14 scientists from around the world attesting to Grime's foundational role in plant functional ecology, including his knack for sparking controversy, his unique approach to theory formulation involving clever experiments and standardized trait measurements of large numbers of species, and the continued impact of his work on ecological science and policy.
Herbivorous arthropods on bracken (Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Khun) in Australia compared with elsewhere
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-1992
Teamwork, Soft Skills, and Research Training
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2016.11.004
Abstract: We provide a list of soft skills that are important for collaboration and teamwork, based on our own experience and from an opinion survey of team leaders. Each skill can be learned to some extent. We also outline workable short courses for graduate schools to strengthen teamwork and collaboration skills among research students.
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
The time value of leaf area
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 05-2000
DOI: 10.1086/303346
Abstract: When a plant invests in construction of a leaf, the revenue-stream that accrues is shaped by three variables: first, the light-capture area per milligram dry mass invested, analogous to a potential rate of return on investment second, the longevity of the leaf, analogous to the expected duration of the revenue stream and third, a time-discount rate, quantifying the fact that light-capture area deployed in the immediate future is more valuable to the plant than the same area deployed at some later time. Recent comparative data make it possible to quantify the cross-species trade-off between the first variable and the second variable. Here we develop an approach through which the consequences of the third variable, the time-discount rate, can be related to the trade-off between the first variable and the second variable. The approach involves an equal-benefit set, the cross-species equivalent of a fitness set. A wide spread of strategies is actually observed to coexist in vegetation, from low to high light capture area per gram and, correspondingly, from high to low leaf longevity. The coexistence suggests that the different observed strategies do not have a clear-cut advantage over the other. The equal-benefit set can be used to investigate what levels of time discount would make it the case that neither the highest-longevity nor the highest light-capture area per milligram strategies would have a clear advantage over the other, with regard to the time-discounted value of the revenue stream generated per milligram invested in leaf.
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
Trait ecology of startup plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.18193
Abstract: Startup plants include seedlings and basal and epicormic resprouts. It has long been held that startups have different strategies from adult plants, but theory for what trait differences to expect is limited and not yet quantitatively tested. Three applicable concepts are analogous to human startup firms, R‐shift, and trait‐growth theory. All three suggest startups should be built with lower construction costs than established plants. This appears to be almost always true in terms of leaf mass per area (LMA), though many comparisons are complicated by the startups growing in lower light. Trait‐growth theory predicts LMA should increase progressively with height or total leaf area, driven by higher conductive‐pathway costs associated with each unit leaf area, and by greater reward from slowing leaf turnover. Basal resprouts often have somewhat higher LMA than seedlings, but possibly this is simply because they are larger. A number of eminently testable questions are identified. Prospects are good for a theoretically cogent and field‐tested body of knowledge about plant startups.
Generalisation of self-thinning of plant populations (reply)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-1977
DOI: 10.1038/268373B0
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.
Location of seagrass beds in estuaries
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-1988
Ecology
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 1985
DOI: 10.1038/313010A0
What do seedlings die from and what are the implications for evolution of seed size?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-05-2004
Parent-specific gene expression and the triploid endosperm
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 07-1989
DOI: 10.1086/284971
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
Stem xylem conductivity is key to plant water balance across Australian angiosperm species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-02-2012
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
Reserve mass and dispersal investment in relation to geographic range of plant species
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-1996
Removal of vertebrate-dispersed fruits in vegetation on fertile and infertile soils
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-1992
DOI: 10.1007/BF00317636
Vessel scaling in evergreen angiosperm leaves conforms with Murray's law and area-filling assumptions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-03-2018
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.15116
Abstract: Water transport in leaf vasculature is a fundamental process affecting plant growth, ecological interactions and ecosystem productivity, yet the architecture of leaf vascular networks is poorly understood. Although Murray's law and the West-Brown-Enquist (WBE) theories predict convergent scaling of conduit width and number, it is not known how conduit scaling is affected by habitat aridity or temperature. We measured the scaling of leaf size, conduit width and conduit number within the leaves of 36 evergreen Angiosperms spanning a large range in aridity and temperature in eastern Australia. Scaling of conduit width and number in midribs and 2° veins did not differ across species and habitats (P > 0.786), and did not differ from that predicted by Murray's law (P = 0.151). Leaf size was strongly correlated with the hydraulic radius of petiole conduits (r
Zanne et al. reply
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-2015
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE14394
Self-thinning in Trifolium subterraneum populations transferred between full daylight and shade
Publisher: JSTOR
Date: 07-1982
DOI: 10.2307/2259927
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.
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.
Climate change and conservation policies in Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1994
DOI: 10.1071/PC940308
Abstract: Projected changes in temperature and precipitation as a result of the enhanced greenhouse effect suggest that climatic zones could shift several hundred kilometres towards the poles and several hundred metres upwards in elevation over the next 50 years. The potential consequences of such changes for sustainability of natural populations are enormous due to both physiological stresses on in iduals and changes in competitive regimes. Despite this, few positive policy initiatives have yet been undertaken in Australia to mitigate the changes for Australia's flora and fauna. Climate change is generally perceived as a distant problem and the uncertainties surrounding the magnitude and rate of changes, especially at a regional scale, have encouraged a wait-and-see approach. In this paper we summarize some of the likely consequences for Australia's native species and outline five directions in which vigorous action is needed within this decade if we are to ameliorate the effects of future climate changes. Four of the five directions are already recognized as important conservation strategies, and more vigorous action is a matter of overcoming political and administrative impediments. The fifth strategy is to transplant selected long-lived, habitat-structuring, plant species into their estimated future climate envelopes, beginning now in order to give them time to develop as future habitat. Such a transplantation programme implies deliberately creating novel species-mixtures, as well as increasing gene flow between related species that previously were geographically separated. While many conservationists will oppose such a transplantation programme, in the name of "community integrity", it is possible that the damage done by transplanting is likely to be less than the damage done by inaction. Among the purposes of this paper is to open a debate on the scientific issues relating to a transplantation programme, because it is now urgent to conduct that debate and to resolve it.
Phylogenetically conservative trait correlation: Quantification and interpretation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-06-2023
Abstract: Correlation across species between two quantitative traits, or between a trait and a habitat property, can suggest that a trait value is effective in sustaining populations in some contexts but not others. It is widely held that such correlations should be controlled for phylogeny, via phylogenetically independent contrasts (PICs) or phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS). A weakness of this idea is that a clade's traits tend to confer success in particular habitats or ways of life, and those niches in turn tend to select for the same traits to continue in the clade. This feedback mechanism can bind phylogeny and niche together as a unified cause for present‐day trait configurations. Accordingly, the phylogenetically conservative share of a trait correlation ought not to be excluded from consideration as potentially ecologically functional. Another weakness is that PGLS does not yield a complete or accurate breakdown of covariation between traits A and B because it corresponds to a generating model where B predicts variation in A but not the reverse, and phylogenetic signal in B is not modelled. Multi‐response mixed models using phylogenetic covariance matrices can quantify conservative trait correlation (CTC), a share of A‐B covariation that is phylogenetically conservative. Because the evidence is from correlative data, it is not possible to split CTC into causation by phylogenetic history versus causation by continuing reciprocal selection between A and B. Moreover, it is quite likely biologically that the two influences have acted in concert, through phylogenetic niche conservatism. Synthesis : The CTC concept treats phylogenetic conservatism as a conjoint interpretation alongside ongoing influence of other traits. CTC can be quantified via multi‐response phylogenetic mixed models.
Importance of local changes in leaf height and density to fish and decapods associated with seagrasses
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-1986
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.
Habitat requirements of the spectacled hare-wallaby (Lagorchestes conspicillatus) in the Northern Territory and Western Australia
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 1992
DOI: 10.1071/WR9920721
Abstract: Fourteen sites occupied by Lagorchestes conspicillatus in the Northern Territory were examined from July to September 1986. The abundance of possible food items at each site was estimated by measuring the percentage cover of herbs, grasses and shrubs with foliage below one metre. Also recorded was the abundance of potential shelters, including grass tussocks, spinifex hummocks (Plectrachne and Triodia spp.) and low shrubs and trees. All sites possessed trees (more than 10 per ha) and shrubs (more than 5 per ha) together with more than 0.5% cover of green grass foliage. A model of suitable habitat was constructed using the 1986 results, and this was tested within the species' range in the Pilbara, Western Australia, and near Daly Waters in the Northern Territory in 1987. The abundance of L. conspicillatus was scored at control sites (sites with all features considered essential on the basis of 1986 data) and test sites (sites lacking 1-2 'essential' features). These data indicated that L, conspicillatus can occur at sites with as little as 0.2% cover of green grass provided there is more than 1.5% herb cover. Sites with no green grass (less than 0.2%) were usually not occupied. All sites occupied by L. conspicillatus had potentially suitable shelters, either shrubs, grass tussocks or spinifex hummocks within 50m of the feeding areas. Diet selection by L. conspicillatus during the 1986 and 1987 dry seasons was as follows: (a) herbs were eaten in preference to other food items except certain seeds (b) grass formed at least 10% of faecal contents irrespective of herb cover and (c) at sites with less than 0.5% herb cover the levels of grass in the faeces increased to compensate for the low availability of herbs.
Fish larvae settling in seagrass
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-1991
Pollutants that replicate
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.TIM.2018.08.003
Abstract: Pollution is the dissemination of material that has harmful effects. Mobile DNA elements and antibiotic-resistance genes are being disseminated into the environment via human activity, and are increasingly being viewed as serious pollutants. These pollutants differ from conventional contaminants in important ways: they can replicate, and they can evolve.
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.
Rebuilding community ecology from functional traits
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2006
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2006.02.002
Abstract: There is considerable debate about whether community ecology will ever produce general principles. We suggest here that this can be achieved but that community ecology has lost its way by focusing on pairwise species interactions independent of the environment. We assert that community ecology should return to an emphasis on four themes that are tied together by a two-step process: how the fundamental niche is governed by functional traits within the context of abiotic environmental gradients and how the interaction between traits and fundamental niches maps onto the realized niche in the context of a biotic interaction milieu. We suggest this approach can create a more quantitative and predictive science that can more readily address issues of global change.
Nutrient concentration, resorption and lifespan
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2003
Aerobic bacteria and archaea tend to have larger and more versatile genomes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-02-2021
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.07912
Abstract: A recent compilation of traits across culturable species of bacteria and archaea allows relationships to be quantified between genome size and other traits and habitat. Cell morphology, size, motility, sporulation and doubling time were not strongly correlated with genome size. Aerobic species averaged ca 35% larger genomes than anaerobic, adjusted for growth temperature. Aerobes had a similar mix of gene functions compared to anaerobes of the same genome size. Shifting proportions of aerobes to anaerobes accounted for about half of previously‐known differences in mean genome size between habitats. One possible factor in these results could be if effective population sizes are larger for aerobes, reducing the potential for gene loss via genetic drift. Larger genomes also confer versatility. They can transport and metabolise a wider range of substrates. More of their genome is engaged in signal detection and response, indicating they benefit from different resources at different times or under different condition. Aerobic habitats might well present opportunities and challenges that vary through time more than anaerobic habitats. The genome size trait‐dimension contributes a useful quantitative descriptor for ecological strategies.
Sprouting ability across diverse disturbances and vegetation types worldwide
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-03-2004
An analysis of diet selection by large generalist herbivores
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 05-1974
DOI: 10.1086/282908
Patterns and drivers of plant diversity across Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-10-2022
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.06426
Abstract: Bio ersity analyses across continental extents are important in providing comprehensive information on patterns and likely drivers of ersity. For vascular plants in Australia, community‐level ersity analyses have been restricted by the lack of a consistent plot‐based survey dataset across the continent. To overcome these challenges, we collated and harmonised plot‐based vegetation survey data from the major data sources across Australia and used them as the basis for modelling species richness (α‐ ersity) and community compositional dissimilarity (β‐ ersity), standardised to 400 m 2 , with the aim of mapping ersity patterns and identifying potential environmental drivers. The harmonised Australian vegetation plot (HAVPlot) dataset includes 219 552 plots, of which we used 115 083 to analyse plant ersity. Models of species richness and compositional dissimilarity both explained approximately one‐third of the variation in plant ersity across Australia (D 2 = 33.0% and 32.7%, respectively). The strongest environmental predictors for both aspects of ersity were a combination of temperature and precipitation, with soil texture and topographic heterogeneity also important. The fine‐resolution (≈ 90 m) spatial predictions of species richness and compositional dissimilarity identify areas expected to be of particular importance for plant ersity, including south‐western Australia, rainforests of eastern Australia and the Australian Alps. Arid areas of central and western Australia are predicted to support assemblages that are less speciose or unique however, these areas are most in need of additional survey data to fill the spatial, environmental and taxonomic gaps in the HAVPlot dataset. The harmonised data and model predictions presented here provide new insight into plant ersity patterns across Australia, enabling a wide variety of future research, such as exploring changes in species abundances, linking compositional patterns to functional traits or undertaking conservation assessments for selected components of the flora.
Effects of insect attack to stems on plant survival, growth, reproduction and photosynthesis
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-10-2015
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.01809
plant: A package for modelling forest trait ecology and evolution
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2016
Seed size and survival in the soil in arid Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2003
Germination biology of selected central Australian plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-1992
Sprouting by plants
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-2004
Diversity in current ecological thinking
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-08-2009
DOI: 10.1007/S00267-008-9187-2
Abstract: Current ecological thinking emphasizes that systems are complex, dynamic, and unpredictable across space and time. What is the ersity in interpretation of these ideas among today's ecologists, and what does this mean for environmental management? This study used a Policy Delphi survey of ecologists to explore their perspectives on a number of current topics in ecology. The results showed general concurrence with nonequilibrium views. There was agreement that disturbance is a widespread, normal feature of ecosystems with historically contingent responses. The importance of recognizing multiple levels of organization and the role of functional ersity in environmental change were also widely acknowledged. Views differed regarding the predictability of successional development, whether "patchiness" is a useful concept, and the benefits of shifting the focus from species to ecosystem processes. Because of their centrality to environmental management, these different views warrant special attention from both managers and ecologists. Such ergence is particularly problematic given widespread concerns regarding the poor linkages between science (here, ecology) and environmental policy and management, which have been attributed to scientific uncertainty and a lack of consensus among scientists, both jeopardizing the transfer of science into management. Several suggestions to help managers deal with these differences are provided, especially the need to interpret broader theory in the context of place-based assessments. The uncertainty created by these differences requires a proactive approach to environmental management, including clearly identifying environmental objectives, careful experimental design, and effective monitoring.
Factors that shape seed mass evolution
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 19-07-2005
Abstract: We used correlated ergence analysis to determine which factors have been most closely associated with changes in seed mass during seed plant evolution. We found that ergences in seed mass have been more consistently associated with ergences in growth form than with ergences in any other variable. This finding is consistent with the strong relationship between seed mass and growth form across present-day species and with the available data from the paleobotanical literature. Divergences in seed mass have also been associated with ergences in latitude, net primary productivity, temperature, precipitation, and leaf area index. However, these environmental variables had much less explanatory power than did plant traits such as seed dispersal syndrome and plant growth form.
Abundance of macrofauna in dense seagrass is due to habitat preference, not predation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 1986
DOI: 10.1007/BF00384788
Choosing species to study [2]
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2002
Families with highest proportions of rare species are not consistent between floras
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2000
Setbacks to shoot growth are common in woody plants, so how are shoots of some species safer than others?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2012
DOI: 10.1890/11-1017.1
Abstract: Tissue turnover is a critical facet of plant life history variation. This study quantifies losses from setbacks to growth of terminal woody shoots 1.2m long, across 83 species and seven sites in eastern Australia. Setbacks, where the leading meristem had been removed or died and a new leader had emerged, were common (median three per shoot). Shoots had lost an average of 0.25 m of lead-stem length for 1.2 m net shoot-length gain. Insects like girdlers and borers were prominent causes of large setbacks. The sites spanned tropical to temperate and humid to semiarid climates, but variation in stem loss was much greater across species than across sites. We measured 17 plant functional traits related to growth form, mechanics, hydraulics, and economics. Only four traits were correlated with variation across species in stem losses: stem diameter, stem nitrogen content, bark thickness, and maximum photosynthetic rate. The correlations were weak. Stem specific gravity (wood density) showed no correlation with risk. Our results suggest a pattern similar to the growth risk trade-off known for herbaceous plants, where traits associated with fast growth increase tissue turnover and herbivory, but the weak correlations leave le scope for other influences that remain to be identified.
The Incidence of low phosphorus soils in Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-09-2017
The importance of leaf cuticle for carbon economy and mechanical strength
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-08-2012
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8137.2012.04263.X
Abstract: Cuticle thickness of leaves varies 100 times across species, yet its dry mass cost and ecological benefits are poorly understood. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that thicker cuticle is not superior as a water barrier, implying that other functions must be important. Here, we measured the mechanical properties, dry mass and density of isolated cuticle from 13 evergreen woody species of Australian forests. Summed adaxial and abaxial cuticle membrane mass per unit leaf area ( CMA ) varied from 2.95 to 27.4 g m −2 across species, and accounted for 6.7–24% of lamina dry mass. Density of cuticle varied only from 1.04 to 1.24 g cm −3 thus variation in CMA was mostly due to variation in cuticle thickness. Thicker cuticle was more resistant to tearing. Tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of cuticle were much higher than those of leaf laminas, with significant differences between adaxial and abaxial cuticles. While cuticle membranes were thin, they could account for a significant fraction of leaf dry mass due to their high density. The substantial cost of thicker cuticle is probably offset by increased mechanical resistance which might confer longer leaf lifespans among evergreen species.
Growth and reproduction in Canthigaster valentini (Pisces, Tetraodontidae)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-1988
DOI: 10.1007/BF00004864
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.
What are the biological bases of varied diets?
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 05-1978
DOI: 10.1086/283303
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