Journal ArticleDOI
Leaf-trait Variation of Tundra Plants along a Climatic Gradient: An Integration of Responses in Evergreen and Deciduous Species
Gaku Kudo,Ulf Molau,Naoya Wada +2 more
TLDR
The contrastive patterns of leaf-trait variation between the deciduous and evergreen plants observed in this study were concordant with the prediction of the model.Abstract:
To understand response patterns of leaf traits in tundra plants against decreasing annual season length comprehensively, a graphic model based on carbon balance theory was presented. The model predicted that leaves with very short life-span and high nitrogen concentration (Nmass) or leaves with very long life-span and small Nmas will be dominate under the conditions of a short growing season. To test this prediction, leaf life-span and other leaf traits of 26 tundra species were compared among four sites selected along a gradient of climatic harshness: a subalpine site at Abisko in northern Sweden, two nearby mid-alpine sites at Latnjajaure with early and late snowmelt, and a site at Ny-Alesund (Svalbard) in the High Arctic. In herbaceous and deciduous shrub species, leaf life-span and/ or leaf mass per unit area (LMA) tended to decrease, and leaf Nmass tended to increase along the climatic gradient with decreasing growing season and lower temperatures. In evergreen shrub species, both leaf life-span and leaf N mass tended to increase under harsh conditions, but the response pattern of LMA was less clear. Deciduous species produced short-lived leaves with a low construction cost and probably high photosynthetic potential, whereas evergreen species produced long-lived leaves. The contrastive patterns of leaf-trait variation between the deciduous and evergreen plants observed in this study were concordant with the prediction of the model.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Global climatic drivers of leaf size.
Ian J. Wright,Ning Dong,Ning Dong,Vincent Maire,Vincent Maire,I. Colin Prentice,I. Colin Prentice,Mark Westoby,Sandra Díaz,Rachael V. Gallagher,Bonnie F. Jacobs,Robert M. Kooyman,Elizabeth A. Law,Elizabeth A. Law,Michelle R. Leishman,Ülo Niinemets,Peter B. Reich,Peter B. Reich,Lawren Sack,Rafael Villar,Han Wang,Han Wang,Peter Wilf +22 more
TL;DR: It is shown that daytime and nighttime leaf-to-air temperature differences are key to geographic gradients in leaf size, which can enrich “next-generation” vegetation models in which leaf temperature and water use during photosynthesis play key roles.
Journal ArticleDOI
What is the relationship between changes in canopy leaf area and changes in photosynthetic CO2 flux in arctic ecosystems
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess the effectiveness of canopy leaf area in explaining variation in gross primary productivity (GPP): (i) across different vegetation types; (ii) at various stages of leaf development; and (iii) under enhanced nutrient availability.
Journal ArticleDOI
Taller and larger: shifts in Arctic tundra leaf traits after 16 years of experimental warming
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined eight traits that quantify different aspects of plant performance: leaf size, specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), plant height, leaf carbon concentration, leaf nitrogen concentration, and leaf carbon isotope discrimination (LCID), and leaf δ15N.
Journal ArticleDOI
“Diminishing returns” in the scaling of functional leaf traits across and within species groups
Karl J. Niklas,Edward D. Cobb,Ülo Niinemets,Peter B. Reich,Arne Sellin,Bill Shipley,Ian J. Wright +6 more
TL;DR: It is argued that this set of scaling relationships exists that negatively affects increases in leaf size and reflects a fundamental property of all plants and helps to explain why annual growth fails to keep pace with increases in total body mass across species.
Journal ArticleDOI
Consistent Shifts in Alpine Plant Traits along a Mesotopographical Gradient
TL;DR: The interplay of intermediate snow-melting dates and intense zoogenic disturbance appears to promote plant diversity and the persistence of species whose mean-elevation distribution is located much below the study site.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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TL;DR: The nature of crop responses to nutrient stress is reviewed and compares these responses to those of species that have evolved under more natural conditions, particularly in low-nutrient envi ronments.
Book ChapterDOI
Plant apparency and chemical defense
TL;DR: A test of how far understanding of insect ecology has progressed will be the authors' ability to predict how patterns vary from one kind of community to another and how they will change when subjected to natural or human disturbance.
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Journal ArticleDOI
Herbivory and defensive characteristics of tree species in a lowland tropical forest
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