Biodiversity of Leaf Traits in Woody Plant Species in Northeastern Mexico: A Synthesis

Abstract

Leaves play a vital role in the growth, development and productivity of woody plants in a forest ecosystem. The present paper deals first with a concise review of research advances undertaken globally on leaf traits of trees and shrubs and then a brief synthesis of results of leaf traits in Linares, Northeastern Mexico. A synthesis is made on research advances on leaf traits, leaf morphology and eco-physiology of trees and shrubs at the global levels and few studies in Northeastern Mexico. There exists a large variability in various leaf morphological traits viz. leaf dimensions and eco-physiological traits viz. leaf area, leaf specific area, leaf dry weight etc. The magnitudes of these traits vary depending on environmental conditions.

Effects of nitrogen and phosphorus availability on the early growth of two congeneric pairs of savanna and forest species

“…The different patterns of biomass allocation in forest species can be viewed indirectly by their bigger leaves and tallest individuals compared with congeneric savanna species (Hoffmann and Franco, 2003;Hoffmann et al, 2005;Hoffmann and Franco, 2008). It also can be interpreted as an evolutionary response, since natural selection on forest species may have acted in favor of distinct and opposite resource than savannas (Maracahipes et al, 2018), the light, and thus, in the aerial growth (Dantas et al, 2015;Gignoux et al, 2016;Rodriguez and Maiti, 2016). However, plant height showed a huge nitrogen dependency to achieve the potential growth, especially in forest species, which displayed massive differences when grew in solutions with and without this nutrient, for example.…”

“…We divided the leaf area by dry leaf biomass to calculate the specific leaf area. Height and leaf traits as specific leaf areas play an important role in plant development by improving the light interception, serving as a proxy of its growth performance (Rodriguez and Maiti, 2016).…”

Investigating the Phenotypic Plasticity of the Invasive Weed Trianthema portulacastrum L.

“…Group-YB had the lowest number of secondary and tertiary branches and internodes, while on the other hand, it has the largest leaf area, longest petiole length, and shorter radical length compared to the other groups, due to the high-salinity water and high evaporation rate [ 45 , 46 ]. The unexpected larger leaf area in this group could reflect the ability of these samples to maintain a sizeable transpiring surface area, which could be part of an integrated mechanism of the whole-plant acclimation to salt stress [ 47 , 48 ].…”

Leaf morphological traits of Orophea spp. (Annonaceae): Living collections of Purwodadi Botanic Gardens, East Java, Indonesia

“…Leaves are also very adaptive to changes in the plant's surrounding environments. Plant adaptability can be investigated through their leaf morphological traits and variations (Rodriguez et al 2016;Bijarpasi et al 2019;Alcantara-Ayala et al 2020).…”