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Morphological and moisture availability controls of the leaf area-to-sapwood area ratio: analysis of measurements on Australian trees

Title: Morphological and moisture availability controls of the leaf area-to-sapwood area ratio: analysis of measurements on Australian trees
Authors: Togashi, HF
Prentice, IC
Evans, BJ
Forrester, DI
Drake, P
Feikema, P
Brooksbank, K
Eamus, D
Taylor, D
Item Type: Journal Article
Abstract: The leaf area-to-sapwood area ratio (LA:SA) is a key plant trait that links photosynthesis to transpiration. The pipe model theory states that the sapwood cross-sectional area of a stem or branch at any point should scale isometrically with the area of leaves distal to that point. Optimization theory further suggests that LA:SA should decrease toward drier climates. Although acclimation of LA:SA to climate has been reported within species, much less is known about the scaling of this trait with climate among species. We compiled LA:SA measurements from 184 species of Australian evergreen angiosperm trees. The pipe model was broadly confirmed, based on measurements on branches and trunks of trees from one to 27 years old. Despite considerable scatter in LA:SA among species, quantile regression showed strong (0.2 < R1 < 0.65) positive relationships between two climatic moisture indices and the lowermost (5%) and uppermost (5–15%) quantiles of log LA:SA, suggesting that moisture availability constrains the envelope of minimum and maximum values of LA:SA typical for any given climate. Interspecific differences in plant hydraulic conductivity are probably responsible for the large scatter of values in the mid-quantile range and may be an important determinant of tree morphology.
Issue Date: 25-Feb-2015
Date of Acceptance: 27-Oct-2014
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/56730
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1344
ISSN: 2045-7758
Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL
Start Page: 1263
End Page: 1270
Journal / Book Title: ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume: 5
Issue: 6
Copyright Statement: © 2015 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Climatic moisture
leaf area
pipe model
plant hydraulics
sapwood area
tree morphology
QUANTILE REGRESSION
SCOTS PINE
WATER-USE
HEIGHT
CONDUCTANCE
DIAMETER
FOREST
CONVERGENCE
ACCLIMATION
ALLOCATION
Publication Status: Published
Appears in Collections:Department of Life Sciences
Grantham Institute for Climate Change
Faculty of Natural Sciences