Leaf Size, Sapling Allometry, and Corner's Rules: Phylogeny and Correlated Evolution in Maples (Acer)

Ackerly,; Donoghue,

doi:10.2307/2463600

Cited by 141 publications

(205 citation statements)

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“…The larger the lamina, the lower the heat exchange, the diffusion of carbon dioxide and water vapour per unit leaf area between a leaf and the surrounding air. LA is known to be constrained by climatic and microclimatic conditions and also by the allometric consequences of plant size, anatomy and architecture [61][62][63] .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global spectrum of plant form and function

Dı́az

Kattge

Cornelissen

et al. 2015

Nature

2,375

125

2,743

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Vascular plants are the main entry point for energy and matter into the Earth's terrestrial ecosystems. Their Darwinian struggle for growth, survival and reproduction in very different arenas has resulted in an extremely wide variety of form and function, both across and within habitats. Yet it has long been thought 1-8 that there is a pattern to be found in this remarkable evolutionary radiation-that some trait constellations are viable and successful whereas others are not.Empirical support for a strongly limited set of viable trait combinations has accumulated for traits associated with single plant organs, such as leaves 7,9-12 , stems 13,14 and seeds [15][16][17] . Evidence across plant organs has been rarer, restricted geographically or taxonomically, and often contradictory [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] . How tightly whole-plant form and function are restricted at the global scale remains unresolved.Here we present the first global quantitative picture of essential functional diversity of extant vascular plants. We quantify the volume, shape and boundaries of this functional space via joint consideration of six traits that together capture the essence of plant form and function: adult plant height, stem specific density, leaf size expressed as leaf area, leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen content per unit mass, and diaspore mass. Our dataset, based on a recently updated communal plant trait database 30 , covers 46,085 vascular plant species from 423 families and to our knowledge spans the widest range of growth-forms and geographical locations to date in published trait analyses, including some of the most extreme plant trait values ever measured in the field (Table 1, Extended Data Fig. 1). On this basis we reveal that the trait space actually occupied is strongly restricted as compared to four alternative null hypotheses. We demonstrate that plant species largely occupy a plane in the six-dimensional trait space. Two key trait dimensions within this plane are the size of whole plants and organs on the one hand, and the construction costs for photosynthetic leaf area, on the other. We subsequently show which sections of the plane are occupied, and how densely, by different growth-forms and major taxonomic groups. The design opportunities and limits indicated by today's global spectrum of plant form and function provide a foundation to achieve a better understanding of the evolutionary trajectory of vascular plants and help frame and test hypotheses as to where and Earth is home to a remarkable diversity of plant forms and life histories, yet comparatively few essential trait combinations have proved evolutionarily viable in today's terrestrial biosphere. By analysing worldwide variation in six major traits critical to growth, survival and reproduction within the largest sample of vascular plant species ever compiled, we found that occupancy of six-dimensional trait space is strongly concentrated, indicating coordination and trade-offs. Threequarters of trait variation is captured in a t...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global spectrum of plant form and function

Dı́az

Kattge

Cornelissen

et al. 2015

Nature

2,375

125

2,743

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“…Ecology has been impacted already by the phylogenetic revolution (e.g. Ackerly & Donoghue 1998;Webb et al 2002) and these impacts are poised to spread to our understanding of biomes.…”

Section: What Can Dated Phylogenies Help Usmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction and synthesis: plant phylogeny and the origin of major biomes

Pennington

Cronk

Richardson³

2004

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Phylogenetic trees based upon DNA sequence data, when calibrated with a dimension of time, allow inference of: (i) the pattern of accumulation of lineages through time; (ii) the time of origin of monophyletic groups; (iii) when lineages arrived in different geographical areas; (iv) the time of origin of biome-specific morphologies. This gives a powerful new view of the history of biomes that in many cases is not provided by the incomplete plant fossil record. Dated plant phylogenies for angiosperm families such as Leguminosae (Fabaceae), Melastomataceae sensu stricto, Annonaceae and Rhamnaceae indicate that long-distance, transoceanic dispersal has played an important role in shaping their distributions, and that this can obscure any effect of tectonic history, previously assumed to have been the major cause of their biogeographic patterns. Dispersal from other continents has also been i mportant in the assembly of the Amazonian rainforest flora and the Australian flora. Comparison of dated biogeographic patterns of plants and animals suggests that recent long-distance dispersal might be more prevalent in plants, which has major implications for community assembly and coevolution. Dated plant phylogenies also reveal the role of past environmental changes on the evolution of lineages in species-rich biomes, and show that recent Plio-Pleistocene diversification has contributed substantially to their current species richness. Because of the critical role of fossils and morphological characters in assigning ages to nodes in phylogenetic trees, future studies must include careful morphological consideration of fossils and their extant relatives in a phylogenetic context. Ideal study systems will be based upon DNA sequence data from multiple loci and multiple fossil calibrations. This allows cross-validation both of age estimates from different loci, and from different fossil calibrations. For a more complete view of biome history, future studies should emphasize full taxon sampling in ecologically important groups, and should focus on geographical areas for which few species-level phylogenies are available, such as tropical Africa and Asia. These studies are urgent because understanding the history of biomes can both inform conservation decisions, and help predict the effects of future environmental changes at a time when biodiversity is being impacted on an unprecedented scale.

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“…68 The CAIC computer program 53 allows a user to select multiple variables for calculating contrasts. Even in multivariate analyses, however, the regression line is constrained to pass through the origin.…”

Section: Multivariate Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even in multivariate analyses, however, the regression line is constrained to pass through the origin. 52,68 An important statistical issue in multivariate analyses is a possible reduction in sample sizes, as only species with information on all variables can be included in the analysis. 53 Thus, variables should be chosen wisely to maximize the number of contrasts.…”

Section: Multivariate Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%