In a fire-adapted ecosystem, increased fire frequency altered community composition and structure of the ecosystem through changes in the position of the shrub line.
Tag - specific leaf area
Juniper Kiss
Leaf:wood allometry and functional traits explain variation in growth rate of rainforest trees
Plant growth rates drive ecosystem productivity and are a central element of a species’ ecological strategy. For seedlings grown under controlled conditions, a large body of scientific literature has identified the...
William Salter
Functional drought response in the Brachypodiumdistachyon species complex
Some polyploid species show enhanced physiological tolerance to drought compared with their progenitors. However, very few studies have examined the consistency of physiological drought response between genetically...
botanyone
Intraspecific variability in specific leaf area and niche occupancy
How functional traits modify species niche occupancy and community assembly is a vital question in ecology. He et al. measure specific leaf area for over 5000 plants with more than 1700 observational locations.
Maize nutrient uptake and photosynthesis in intercropping
Maize and wheat are globally important food crops. The two species can be grown as an intercrop, with substantial land sparing in the order of 20%, as expressed by a land equivalent ratio of approximately 1.2. In a...
AoBPLANTS
Interactive effects of [CO2] and water availability on maritime pine
Evidence from this study indicates that elevated [CO2] not only can aggravate the effects of water deficit on photosynthetic performance and growth of maritime pine but also it can attenuate genotypic differences in...
Communities on infertile soils are less sensitive to climate change
Much evidence suggests that plant communities on infertile soils are relatively insensitive to increased water deficit caused by increasing temperature and/or decreasing precipitation. Harrison et al. undertake a re...
Host tree phenology affects vascular epiphytes at the physiological, demographic and community level
The processes that govern diverse tropical plant communities have rarely been studied in life-forms other than trees. Structurally dependent vascular epiphytes, a major part of tropical biodiversity, grow in a three...
Leaf display by conifer and angiosperm seedlings
The contemporary relegation of conifers mainly to cold or infertile sites has been ascribed to low competitive ability. Lusk et al. use 3-D modelling of plant architecture and structural equation modelling to compare...
Functional plasticity in the hydraulic system
Functional plasticity in a plant’s hydraulic architecture may constitute a mechanistic basis for anticipating the differential success of plant species in response to climate variability. von Arx et al. compare several...
Leaf functional traits of invasive and native woody vines
Success of invasive plant species is thought to be linked with their higher leaf carbon fixation strategy. Osunkoya et al. (pp. 371–380) show that there is limited difference in trait plasticity between exotic invasive...
Editor Pat Heslop-Harrison