Temperature and plant-available soil phosphorus drive intraspecific variation in plant economic traits of Schima superba across an elevation gradient.

Background And Aims: The whole-plant economics spectrum (PES) describes coordination between organ-level traits that together determine resource use strategies and is relevant for understanding plant responses to environmental change. Whereas coordination between organs has previously been explored across species, it remains unclear whether patterns observed across species hold within species. In addition, the key driving forces underlying this coordination warrant clarification.

Coordination of photosynthetic traits across soil and climate gradients.

"Least-cost theory" posits that C plants should balance rates of photosynthetic water loss and carboxylation in relation to the relative acquisition and maintenance costs of resources required for these activities. Here we investigated the dependency of photosynthetic traits on climate and soil properties using a new Australia-wide trait dataset spanning 528 species from 67 sites. We tested the hypotheses that plants on relatively cold or dry sites, or on relatively more fertile sites, would typically operate at greater CO drawdown (lower ratio of leaf internal to ambient CO , C :C ) during light-saturated photosynthesis, and at higher leaf N per area (N ) and higher carboxylation capacity (V ) for a given rate of stomatal conductance to water vapour, g .

Leaf trait covariation and controls on leaf mass per area (LMA) following cotton domestication.

Background And Aims: The process of domestication has driven dramatic shifts in plant functional traits, including leaf mass per area (LMA). It remains unclear whether domestication has produced concerted shifts in the lower-level anatomical traits that underpin LMA and how these traits in turn affect photosynthesis.

Methods: In this study we investigated controls of LMA and leaf gas exchange by leaf anatomical properties at the cellular, tissue and whole-leaf levels, comparing 26 wild and 31 domesticated genotypes of cotton (Gossypium).

Nitrogen concentration and physical properties are key drivers of woody tissue respiration.

Background And Aims: Despite the critical role of woody tissues in determining net carbon exchange of terrestrial ecosystems, relatively little is known regarding the drivers of sapwood and bark respiration.

Methods: Using one of the most comprehensive wood respiration datasets to date (82 species from Australian rainforest, savanna and temperate forest), we quantified relationships between tissue respiration rates (Rd) measured in vitro (i.e.

Intraspecific trait variation in plants: a renewed focus on its role in ecological processes.

Background: Investigating the causes and consequences of intraspecific trait variation (ITV) in plants is not novel, as it has long been recognized that such variation shapes biotic and abiotic interactions. While evolutionary and population biology have extensively investigated ITV, only in the last 10 years has interest in ITV surged within community and comparative ecology.

Scope: Despite this recent interest, still lacking are thorough descriptions of ITV's extent, the spatial and temporal structure of ITV, and stronger connections between ITV and community and ecosystem properties.