Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth?
A major foundation of trait-based ecology is that traits have an impact on individual performance. However, trait-growth relationships have not been extensively assessed in trees, especially outside tropical ecosystems. In addition, measuring traits directly related to physiological processes remain...
| Autores: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:251949 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/251949 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13906 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Basal area increment Functional trait Growth efficiency Hydraulics Intraspecific variability Leaf economic spectrum Water availability |
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Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth?Rosas, Teresa|||0000-0002-8734-9752Mencuccini, Maurizio|||0000-0003-0840-1477Batlles, Carles|||0000-0002-2717-6714Regalado, ÍngridSaura Mas, Sandra|||0000-0001-8539-427XSterck, Frank|||0000-0001-7559-6572Martínez Vilalta, Jordi|||0000-0002-2332-7298Basal area incrementFunctional traitGrowth efficiencyHydraulicsIntraspecific variabilityLeaf economic spectrumWater availabilityA major foundation of trait-based ecology is that traits have an impact on individual performance. However, trait-growth relationships have not been extensively assessed in trees, especially outside tropical ecosystems. In addition, measuring traits directly related to physiological processes remains difficult and the differences between inter- and intraspecific relationships are seldom explored. Here, we use individual-level data on a set of hydraulic, leaf and stem traits to assess their ability to predict basal area increment (BAI) and growth efficiency (BAI per unit of tree leaf area, GE) among and within species for six dominant tree species along a water availability gradient under Mediterranean climate (Catalonia, NE Spain). Measured traits include: leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf nitrogen concentration (N), leaf C isotopic composition (δC), the leaf water potential at turgor loss (P), stem wood density (WD) and branch-level estimates of the Huber value (Hv), sapwood- and leaf-specific hydraulic conductivity (K and K) and resistance to xylem embolism (P). Trait-growth associations were generally weak, particularly for BAI and within species. High values of both growth metrics were associated with 'conservative' leaf and hydraulic traits. In particular, BAI was negatively associated with K (and wood density), while GE increased with LMA, allocation to sapwood relative to leaves (Hv) and resistance to xylem embolism (P). Climate effects on BAI and GE were indirectly mediated by changes in traits, stand structure and tree basal area. Overall, these results suggest that maintaining functionality over extended periods of time may be more important than maximum gas exchange or hydraulic capacity to achieve high radial growth under Mediterranean climates. Our study reveals that widely used 'functional traits' may be poor predictors of tree growth variability along environmental gradients. Moreover, trait effects (when present) do not necessarily conform to simple hypotheses based on our understanding of organ-level processes. An improved understanding of trait coordination along common axes of variation together with a revaluation of the variables that better reflect whole-tree performance can greatly improve our understanding of trait-growth relationships. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. 22021-01-0120212021-01-01Articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://ddd.uab.cat/record/251949https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13906reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UABinstname:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaInglésengMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003329 CGL2013-46808-RAgencia Estatal de Investigación https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 CGL2017-89149-C2-1-Ropen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:ddd.uab.cat:2519492026-06-06T12:50:31Z |
| dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth? |
| title |
Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth? |
| spellingShingle |
Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth? Rosas, Teresa|||0000-0002-8734-9752 Basal area increment Functional trait Growth efficiency Hydraulics Intraspecific variability Leaf economic spectrum Water availability |
| title_short |
Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth? |
| title_full |
Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth? |
| title_fullStr |
Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth? |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth? |
| title_sort |
Are leaf, stem and hydraulic traits good predictors of individual tree growth? |
| dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv |
Rosas, Teresa|||0000-0002-8734-9752 Mencuccini, Maurizio|||0000-0003-0840-1477 Batlles, Carles|||0000-0002-2717-6714 Regalado, Íngrid Saura Mas, Sandra|||0000-0001-8539-427X Sterck, Frank|||0000-0001-7559-6572 Martínez Vilalta, Jordi|||0000-0002-2332-7298 |
| author |
Rosas, Teresa|||0000-0002-8734-9752 |
| author_facet |
Rosas, Teresa|||0000-0002-8734-9752 Mencuccini, Maurizio|||0000-0003-0840-1477 Batlles, Carles|||0000-0002-2717-6714 Regalado, Íngrid Saura Mas, Sandra|||0000-0001-8539-427X Sterck, Frank|||0000-0001-7559-6572 Martínez Vilalta, Jordi|||0000-0002-2332-7298 |
| author_role |
author |
| author2 |
Mencuccini, Maurizio|||0000-0003-0840-1477 Batlles, Carles|||0000-0002-2717-6714 Regalado, Íngrid Saura Mas, Sandra|||0000-0001-8539-427X Sterck, Frank|||0000-0001-7559-6572 Martínez Vilalta, Jordi|||0000-0002-2332-7298 |
| author2_role |
author author author author author author |
| dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv |
Basal area increment Functional trait Growth efficiency Hydraulics Intraspecific variability Leaf economic spectrum Water availability |
| topic |
Basal area increment Functional trait Growth efficiency Hydraulics Intraspecific variability Leaf economic spectrum Water availability |
| description |
A major foundation of trait-based ecology is that traits have an impact on individual performance. However, trait-growth relationships have not been extensively assessed in trees, especially outside tropical ecosystems. In addition, measuring traits directly related to physiological processes remains difficult and the differences between inter- and intraspecific relationships are seldom explored. Here, we use individual-level data on a set of hydraulic, leaf and stem traits to assess their ability to predict basal area increment (BAI) and growth efficiency (BAI per unit of tree leaf area, GE) among and within species for six dominant tree species along a water availability gradient under Mediterranean climate (Catalonia, NE Spain). Measured traits include: leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf nitrogen concentration (N), leaf C isotopic composition (δC), the leaf water potential at turgor loss (P), stem wood density (WD) and branch-level estimates of the Huber value (Hv), sapwood- and leaf-specific hydraulic conductivity (K and K) and resistance to xylem embolism (P). Trait-growth associations were generally weak, particularly for BAI and within species. High values of both growth metrics were associated with 'conservative' leaf and hydraulic traits. In particular, BAI was negatively associated with K (and wood density), while GE increased with LMA, allocation to sapwood relative to leaves (Hv) and resistance to xylem embolism (P). Climate effects on BAI and GE were indirectly mediated by changes in traits, stand structure and tree basal area. Overall, these results suggest that maintaining functionality over extended periods of time may be more important than maximum gas exchange or hydraulic capacity to achieve high radial growth under Mediterranean climates. Our study reveals that widely used 'functional traits' may be poor predictors of tree growth variability along environmental gradients. Moreover, trait effects (when present) do not necessarily conform to simple hypotheses based on our understanding of organ-level processes. An improved understanding of trait coordination along common axes of variation together with a revaluation of the variables that better reflect whole-tree performance can greatly improve our understanding of trait-growth relationships. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2 2021-01-01 2021 2021-01-01 |
| dc.type.none.fl_str_mv |
Article http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 VoR http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85 |
| dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| format |
article |
| dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv |
https://ddd.uab.cat/record/251949 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13906 |
| url |
https://ddd.uab.cat/record/251949 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13906 |
| dc.language.none.fl_str_mv |
Inglés eng |
| language_invalid_str_mv |
Inglés |
| language |
eng |
| dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003329 CGL2013-46808-R Agencia Estatal de Investigación https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 CGL2017-89149-C2-1-R |
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open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
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openAccess |
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application/pdf |
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reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB instname:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
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