A continental‐scale assessment of variability in leaf traits: Within species, across sites and between seasons

Abstract

Plant species show considerable leaf trait variability that should be accounted for in dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs). In particular, differences in the acclimation of leaf traits during periods more and less favourable to growth have rarely been examined. We conducted a field study of leaf trait variation at seven sites spanning a range of climates and latitudes across the Australian continent; 80 native plant species were included. We measured key traits associated with leaf structure, chemistry and metabolism during the favourable and unfavourable growing seasons. Leaf traits differed widely in the degree of seasonal variation displayed. Leaf mass per unit area (Ma) showed none. At the other extreme, seasonal variation accounted for nearly a third of total variability in dark respiration (Rdark). At the non‐tropical sites, carboxylation capacity (Vcmax) at the prevailing growth temperature was typically higher in summer than in winter. When Vcmax was normalized to a common reference temperature (25°C), however, the opposite pattern was observed for about 30% of the species. This suggests that metabolic acclimation is possible, but far from universal. Intraspecific variation—combining measurements of individual plants repeated at contrasting seasons, different leaves from the same individual, and multiple conspecific plants at a given site—dominated total variation for leaf metabolic traits Vcmax and Rdark. By contrast, site location was the major source of variation (53%) for Ma. Interspecific trait variation ranged from only 13% of total variation for Vcmax up to 43% for nitrogen content per unit leaf area. These findings do not support a common practice in DGVMs of assigning fixed leaf trait values to plant functional types. Trait‐based models should allow for interspecific differences, together with spatial and temporal plasticity in leaf structural, chemical and metabolic traits. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13097/suppinfo is available for this article.

The validity of optimal leaf traits modelled on environmental conditions

“…Such variability amongst co‐occurring species is to be expected (e.g. Bloomfield et al ., ) and likely reflects factors such as canopy position, and therefore light environment, and vapour pressure deficit. Our model performed less successfully when rates were normalized to the standard reference temperature of 25°C.…”

“…This is a subset (combined here with carbon isotope analysis) of a larger dataset presented in Bloomfield et al . (). At each visit, we chose young, fully developed leaves from two sun‐exposed branches.…”

Monitoring Plant Functional Diversity Using the Reflectance and Echo from Space

“…Second, there is a critical temporal scale mismatch. Co-existing species in a plant community can have different phenologies, plus the traits themselves may vary over the seasons [33][34][35] (Figure 1). As such, not only trait values for each species, but also their community means, should vary across seasons ( Figure 1).…”

Core principles which explain variation in respiration across biological scales

“…Furthermore, a field study of boreal and temperate tree species experiencing an artificial change in growth temperature revealed that acclimation eliminated 80% of the expected increase in leaf respiration rates as a result of a 3.4°C increase in temperature (Reich et al ., ). The existence of seasonal thermal acclimation of leaf dark respiration is also supported by measurements of field‐grown deciduous and evergreen species in a variety of ecosystems (Zaragoza‐Castells et al ., ; Bloomfield et al ., ). Therefore, it may be that one aspect of acclimation is to reduce capacity limitations when they occur (e.g.…”