A fundamental goal in ecology is to link variation in species function to performance, but functional trait-performance investigations have had mixed success. This indicates that less commonly measured functional traits may more clearly elucidate trait-performance relationships. Despite the potential importance of leaf vein traits, which are expected to be related to resource delivery rates and...

In competition-dominated communities, traits promoting resource conservation and competitive ability are expected to have an important influence on species relative abundance (SRA). Yet, few studies have tested the trait-abundance relations in the line of species trade-off in resource conservation versus acquisition, indicating by multiple traits coordination. We measured SRA and key functional...

Habitats that differ in soil resource availability are expected to differ for selection on resource-related plant traits. Here, we examined spatial and temporal variation in phenotypic selection on leaf ecophysiological traits for 10 Helianthus populations, including two species of hybrid origin, Helianthus anomalus and Helianthus deserticola, and artificial hybrids of their ancestral parents. ...

Leaf mass per area (LMA), nitrogen concentration (on mass and area bases, N(mass) and N(area), respectively), photosynthetic capacity (A(mass) and A(area)) and photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE) are key foliar traits, but few data are available from cold, high-altitude environments. Here, we systematically measured these leaf traits in 74 species at 49 research sites on the Tibetan P...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Hydrophytes generally exhibit highly acquisitive leaf economics. However, a range of growth forms is evident, from small, free-floating and rapidly growing Lemniden to large, broad-leaved Nymphaeiden, denoting variability in adaptive strategies. Traits used to classify adaptive strategies in terrestrial species, such as canopy height, are not applicable to hydrophytes. We hy...

The phenotypic responses of functional traits in natural populations are driven by genetic diversity and phenotypic plasticity. These two mechanisms enable trees to cope with rapid climate change. We studied two European temperate tree species (sessile oak and European beech), focusing on (i) in situ variations of leaf functional traits (morphological and physiological) along two altitudinal gr...

Recent studies have demonstrated significant correlations between stem and leaf hydraulic properties when comparing across species within ecological communities. This implies that these traits are co-evolving, but there have been few studies addressing plant water relations within an explicitly evolutionary framework. This study tests for correlated evolution among a suite of plant water-use tr...

Present-day correlations between leaf physiognomic traits (shape and size) and climate are widely used to estimate paleoclimate using fossil floras. For example, leaf-margin analysis estimates paleotemperature using the modern relation of mean annual temperature (MAT) and the site-proportion of untoothed-leaf species (NT). This uniformitarian approach should provide accurate paleoclimate recons...

Introduced plants tend to experience less herbivory than natives, although herbivore loads vary widely. Herbivores may switch hosts onto an introduced plant for at least two reasons. They may recognize the novel plant as a potential host based on similarity of the plant's traits to the traits of one of its native hosts, a similarity that may or may not exhibit phylogenetic signal. Alternatively...

Leaf age structures the phenology and development of plants, as well as the evolution of leaf traits over life histories. However, a general method for efficiently estimating leaf age across forests and canopy environments is lacking. Here, we explored the potential for a statistical model, previously developed for Peruvian sunlit leaves, to consistently predict leaf ages from leaf reflectance ...