An evolutionary perspective on leaf economics: phylogenetics of leaf mass per area in vascular plants

OLIVIER FLORES; GARNIER, E; WRIGHT, IJ; REICH, PB; PIERCE, S.; DÍAZ, S; ET AL.

Ecology and Evolution

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2014

In plant leaves, resource use follows a trade-off between rapid resource captureand conservative storage. This ?worldwide leaf economics spectrum? consists ofa suite of intercorrelated leaf traits, among which leaf mass per area, LMA, isone of the most fundamental as it indicates the cost of leaf construction andlight-interception borne by plants. We conducted a broad-scale analysis of theevolutionary history of LMA across a large dataset of 5401 vascular plant species.The phylogenetic signal in LMA displayed low but significant conservatism,that is, leaf economics tended to be more similar among close relativesthan expected by chance alone. Models of trait evolution indicated that LMAevolved under weak stabilizing selection. Moreover, results suggest that differentoptimal phenotypes evolved among large clades within which extremes tendedto be selected against. Conservatism in LMA was strongly related to growthform, as were selection intensity and phenotypic evolutionary rates: woodyplants showed higher conservatism in relation to stronger stabilizing selection