Genetic variation in leaf traits and gas exchange responses to vapour pressure deficit in contrasting conifer species

Abstract

Recent years have seen an increasing recognition of the importance of intraspecific trait variation in shaping community dynamics and ecosystem processes (Siefert et al., 2015;Violle et al., 2012). In particular, there has been an increasing interest in incorporating evolutionary processes into trait-based, mechanistic models to predict species and ecosystem responses to climate change (Berzaghi et al., 2020;Moran et al., 2016). Such incorporation requires a better understanding of the genetic variation in key functional traits.