If self‐shading is so bad, why is there so much? Short shoots reconcile costs and benefits

Lys, Alexandre de Haldat du; Millan, Mathieu; Barczi, Jean‐François; Caraglio, Yves; Midgley, Guy F.; Charles‐Dominique, Tristan

doi:10.1111/nph.18636

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…A large leaf means large area to capture light in situations where light intensity is low. This can also be accomplished by decreasing the number of overlapping leaves through the reduction of leaf angles on branches ( Valladares and Niinemets, 2008 ; de Haldat du Lys et al., 2023 ). Though their areas in F. pumila are quite small, LSs are located on sterile branches that are oriented horizontally, with minimal overlapping (personal observations).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional trait divergence associated with heteromorphic leaves in a climbing fig

Deng,

Wang,

Chen

et al. 2023

Front. Plant Sci.

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IntroductionPlants that display heteroblasty possess conspicuous variations in leaf morphology between their juvenile and adult phases, with certain species retaining juvenile-like leaves even in adulthood. Nevertheless, the ecological advantages of maintaining two or more distinct leaf types in heteroblastic plants at the adult stage remain unclear.MethodThe aim of this study is to examine the adaptive significance of heteroblastic leaves sampled from branches with divergent functions (sterile and fertile branches) of mature Ficus pumila individuals by comparing their morphological, anatomical, and physiological characteristics.ResultLeaves on sterile branches (LSs) exhibited a significantly larger specific leaf area, thinner palisade and spongy tissues, lower chlorophyll contents, and lower light saturation points than leaves on fertile branches (LFs). These results demonstrate that LSs are better adapted to low light environments, while LFs are well equipped to take advantages of high light conditions. However, both LFs and LSs have a low light compensation point with no significant difference between them, indicating that they start to accumulate photosynthetic products under similar light conditions. Interestingly, significant higher net photosynthetic rate was detected in LFs, showing they have higher photosynthetic capacity. Furthermore, LFs produced significant more nutrients compared to LSs, which may associate to their ability of accumulating more photosynthetic products under full light conditions and higher photosynthetic capacity.DiscussionOverall, we observed a pattern of divergence in morphological features of leaves on two functional branches. Anatomical and physiological features indicate that LFs have an advantage in varied light conditions, providing amounts of photosynthetic products to support the sexual reproduction, while LSs adapt to low light environments. Our findings provide evidence that heteroblasty facilitates F. pumila to utilize varying light environments, likely associated with its growth form as a climbing plant. This strategy allows the plant to allocate resources more effectively and optimize its overall fitness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional trait divergence associated with heteromorphic leaves in a climbing fig

Deng,

Wang,

Chen

et al. 2023

Front. Plant Sci.

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“…However, this upper canopy layer may provide sufficient shading and associated cooling benefits to produce a canopy microclimate that enables lower‐canopy shade leaves to photosynthesize at a lower water cost. This hypothesis has been supported in computer models of woody species architecture (de Haldat du Lys et al ., 2022).…”

Section: Hypotheses Relating To Extreme Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant water use theory should incorporate hypotheses about extreme environments, population ecology, and community ecology

et al. 2023

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Plant water use theory has largely been developed within a plantperformance paradigm that conceptualizes water use in terms of value for carbon gain and that sits within a neoclassical economic framework. This theory works very well in many contexts but does not consider other values of water to plants that could impact their fitness. Here, we survey a range of alternative hypotheses for drivers of water use and stomatal regulation. These hypotheses are organized around relevance to extreme environments, population ecology, and community ecology. Most of these hypotheses are not yet empirically tested and some are controversial (e.g. requiring more agency and behavior than is commonly believed possible for plants). Some hypotheses, especially those focused around using water to avoid thermal stress, using water to promote reproduction instead of growth, and using water to hoard it, may be useful to incorporate into theory or to implement in Earth System Models.

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Incorporating dynamic schemes of canopy light extinction coefficient improves transpiration model performance for fruit plantations

Chen,

Hu,

Duan

et al. 2023

Journal of Hydrology

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If self‐shading is so bad, why is there so much? Short shoots reconcile costs and benefits

Cited by 4 publications

References 71 publications

Functional trait divergence associated with heteromorphic leaves in a climbing fig

Functional trait divergence associated with heteromorphic leaves in a climbing fig

Plant water use theory should incorporate hypotheses about extreme environments, population ecology, and community ecology

Incorporating dynamic schemes of canopy light extinction coefficient improves transpiration model performance for fruit plantations

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