Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T02:53:29.529Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Within-species leaf trait variation and ecological flexibility in resprouting tropical trees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2012

Carl F. Salk
Carl F. Salk*
Affiliation:
Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO 80302, USA; International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg A-2361, Austria
*
1Email: carl.salk@colorado.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Plants have an inherent flexibility to respond to different environmental conditions. One axis of plant ecophysiological strategy is seen in the spectrum of leaf functional traits. Flexibility in these traits would be suggestive of plants’ phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental changes. This research seeks to identify differences between leaves of sprout and non-sprout shoots of a broad ecological range of neotropical tree species. Using a functional-trait approach, this study assesses a large pool of species for within-species physiological flexibility. Leaf mass per area (LMA) and leaf area were measured for plants of sprout and non-sprout origin for 26 tree species grown in a reforestation plantation in Panama. Sprouts had a consistently lower LMA than non-sprouts, but there was no consistent pattern for leaf area. These trends show that sprouts are more like pioneer species than conspecific saplings, a finding in general agreement with fast sprout growth seen in previous studies. Further, later-successional (high LMA) species showed a greater reduction of LMA in sprouts. These results show that tropical tree species adjust physiologically to changing ecological roles and suggest that certain species may be more resilient than realized to changing climate and disturbance patterns.

Keywords

disturbancefunctional traitsleaf mass per areaPanamaphenotypic plasticityPRORENAsproutingsuccessional statustropical trees
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 28 , Issue 5 , September 2012 , pp. 527 - 530
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

AUGSPURGER, C. K., CHEESEMAN, J. M. & SALK, C. F. 2005. Light gains and physiological capacity of understorey woody plants during phenological avoidance of canopy shade. Functional Ecology 19:537–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BOND, W. J. & MIDGLEY, J. J. 2001. Ecology of sprouting in woody plants: the persistence niche. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 16:45–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
COLEY, P. D. 1980. Effects of leaf age and plant life-history patterns on herbivory. Nature 284:545–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CRAVEN, D., BRADEN, D., ASHTON, M. S., BERLYN, G. P., WISHNIE, M. & DENT, D. 2007. Between and within-site comparisons of structural and physiological characteristics and foliar nutrient content of 14 tree species at a wet, fertile site and a dry, infertile site in Panama. Forest Ecology and Management 238:335–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DE CASAS, R. R., VARGAS, P., PÉREZ-CORONA, E., MANRIQUE, E., GARCIA-VERDUGO, C. & BALAGUER, L. 2011. Sun and shade leaves of Olea europaea respond differently to plant size, light availability and genetic variation. Functional Ecology 25:802–812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DEL TREDICI, P. 2001. Sprouting in temperate trees: a morphological and ecological review. Botanical Review 67:121–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DIETZE, M. C. & CLARK, J. S. 2008. Changing the gap dynamics paradigm: vegetative regeneration control on forest response to disturbance. Ecological Monographs 78:331–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DONOVAN, L. A. & PAPPERT, R. A. 1998. Ecophysiological differences among growth stages of Quercus laevis in a sandhill oak community. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 125:3–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KITAJIMA, K. & POORTER, L. 2010. Tissue-level leaf toughness, but not lamina thickness, predicts sapling leaf lifespan and shade tolerance of tropical tree species. New Phytologist 186:708–721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KRUGER, E. L. & REICH, P. B. 1993. Coppicing affects growth, root-shoot relations and ecophysiology of potted Quercus rubra seedlings. Physiologia Plantarum 89:751–760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LUOSTARINEN, K. & KAUPPI, A. 2005. Effects of coppicing on the root and stump carbohydrate dynamics in birches. New Forests 6:289–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MOSTACEDO, B., PUTZ, F. E., FREDERICKSEN, T. S., VILLCA, A. & PALACIOS, T. 2009. Contributions of root and stump sprouts to natural regeneration of a logged tropical dry forest in Bolivia. Forest Ecology and Management 258:978–985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
REICH, P. B., WRIGHT, I. J., CAVENDER-BARES, J., CRAINE, J. M., OLEKSYN, J., WESTOBY, M. & WALTERS, M. B. 2003. The evolution of plant functional variation: traits, spectra, and strategies. International Journal of Plant Sciences 164:S143–S164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SALK, C. F. & MCMAHON, S. M. 2011. Ecological and environmental factors constrain sprouting ability in tropical trees. Oecologia 166:485–492.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
WRIGHT, I. J., REICH, P. B., WESTOBY, M., ACKERLY, D. D., BARUCH, Z., BONGERS, F., CAVENDER-BARES, J., CHAPIN, T., CORNELISSEN, J. H. C., DIEMER, M., FLEXAS, J., GARNIER, E., GROOM, P. K., GULIAS, J., HIKOSAKA, K., LAMONT, B. B., LEE, T., LEE, W., LUSK, C., MIDGLEY, J. J., NAVAS, M.-L., NIINEMETS, Ü., OLEKSYN, J., OSADA, N., POORTER, H., POOT, P., PRIOR, L., PYANKOV, V. I., ROUMET, C., THOMAS, S. C., TJOELKER, M. G., VENEKLAAS, E. J. & VILLAR, R. 2004. The worldwide leaf economics spectrum. Nature 428:821–827.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed