Drought is the main selection agent in Mediterranean ecosystems and it has been suggested as an important evolutionary force responsible for population diversification in these types of environments. However, population divergence in quantitative traits can be driven by either natural selection, genetic drift or both. To investigate the roles of these forces on among-population divergence in ec...

Photosynthesis rates and photosynthesis-leaf nutrient relationships were analysed in nine tropical grass and sedge species growing in three different ecosystems: a rain-fed grassland, a seasonal floodplain, and a permanent swamp, located along a hydrological gradient in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. These investigations were conducted during the rainy season, at a time of the year when differen...

Stomatal conductance in trees is related to both foliar carbon-isotope abundance and stem hydraulic properties. By combining these relationships, I hypothesized that carbon-isotope abundance in foliage should vary with limitations to water movement through supporting branches. I sampled Douglas-fir branches (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) from six sites across a climate gradient in Orego...

Abstract—Specific leaf area (SLA; cmleaf gleaf) the ratio of leaf area to leaf dry mass is a key ecophysiological parameter influencing leaf physiology, photosynthesis, and whole plant carbon gain and also can be used as a rapid and diagnostic tool. In this study, two species of soluble inorganic selenium forms, selenite (Se) and selenate (Se) at different concentrations were investigated on ma...

Based on prior evidence of coordinated multiple leaf trait scaling, we hypothesized that variation among species in leaf dark respiration rate (Rd) should scale with variation in traits such as leaf nitrogen (N), leaf life-span, specific leaf area (SLA), and net photosynthetic capacity (A,,,). However, it is not known whether such scaling, if it exists, is similar among disparate biomes and pla...

The anatomical and morphological leaf traits as well as leaf inclination and orientation per different leaf age cohort of Quercus ilex, Phillyrea latifolia and Cistus incanus growing in the Mediterranean maquis along Rome’s coast-line (Italy) were investigated. Specific leaf weight (SLW), total leaf thickness (L), leaf density index and leaf inclination (a) changed according to leaf age. The ma...