Trade-offs between physical and chemical carbon-based leaf defence: Of Intraspecific variation and trait evolution
1. Despite recent advances in studies on trade-offs between plant defence traits, little is known whether trade-offs reflect i) evolutionary constraints at the species level or ii) allocation constraints at the individual level. Here, we asked to which degree physical and chemical carbon-based leaf defence traits covary within and across species.
2. We assessed leaf toughness, leaf total phenolics and tannin concentrations for 51 subtropical tree species. Species trait means, sample-specific values and phylogenetically independent contrasts were used in regression analyses. Phylogenetic signals and trait evolution were assessed along the phylogeny.
3. The cross-species analyses revealed significant negative trait covariations between physical and chemical defence traits in cross-species analyses. These covariations were inconsistent at the within-species level. All three defence aspects showed strong phylogenetic signals, but differed in the degree of conservatism along the phylogeny. Inclusion of intraspecific trait variability significantly decreased the strength of these covariations. Strong negative trait covariations were detected between physical and chemical defence when phylogeneticnon-independencewas accounted for.
4. Synthesis: We addressed two sources of variation (allocation and evolution) independently from each other in the context of trait interrelationships. The observed negative covariations hint at the existence of a trade-off between physical and chemical defence traits. The finding that intraspecific trait variation contributed less to this relationship suggests that the trade-off is dominated by evolutionary constraints rather than by carbon allocation constraints.
2014-09-26 12:15:32 UTC
final
SP03e Plant functional traits and functional diversity as predictors of ecosystem functioning
David Eichenberg, Dr.
david.eichenberg@uni-leipzig.de
Helge Bruelheide, Prof.
helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de
Christian Ristok
christian.ristok@idiv.de
Oliver Purschke
oliver.purschke@idiv.de
David Eichenberg, Dr.
david.eichenberg@uni-leipzig.de
Main Experiment: Leaf toughness of individual trees in the Main Experiment (Site A and B)
main
true
David Eichenberg, Dr.
david.eichenberg@uni-leipzig.de
Helge Bruelheide, Prof.
helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de
Wenzel Kröber
noreply@uni.halle.de
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/324/download
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/324/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
CSPs: Leaf toughness of individual trees in the CSPs
main
false
David Eichenberg, Dr.
david.eichenberg@uni-leipzig.de
Helge Bruelheide, Prof.
helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/322/download
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/322/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
CSPs: Leaf traits and chemicals from individual trees in the CSPs
main
false
Martin Böhnke
martin.boehnke@botanik.uni-halle.de
David Eichenberg, Dr.
david.eichenberg@uni-leipzig.de
Helge Bruelheide, Prof.
helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de
Wenzel Kröber
noreply@uni.halle.de
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/212/download
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/212/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Main Experiment: Leaf traits and chemicals from individual trees in the Main Experiment (Site A & B)
main
true
David Eichenberg, Dr.
david.eichenberg@uni-leipzig.de
Helge Bruelheide, Prof.
helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de
Wenzel Kröber
noreply@uni.halle.de
Martin Böhnke
martin.boehnke@botanik.uni-halle.de
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/323/download
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/323/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
CSPs: Phylogenetic tree of woody species in the Gutianshan National Reserve
main
false
Stefan Michalski
stefan.michalski@ufz.de
Walter Durka
walter.durka@ufz.de
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/240/download
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/240/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Main Experiment: Phylogenetic distance matrix of the main experiment
main
false
Stefan Michalski
stefan.michalski@ufz.de
Walter Durka
walter.durka@ufz.de
Oliver Purschke
oliver.purschke@idiv.de
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/227/download
https://data.botanik.uni-halle.de/bef-china/datasets/227/download.csv?separate_category_columns=true
Journal of Ecology; JEcol-2015-0239; submitted: 31.3.2015
2015-04-26
accepted