Unravelling the coordination between leaf and stem economics spectra through local and global scale approaches

SEBASTI
AN R. ZEBALLOS, MELISA A. GIORGIS, MARCELO CABIDO AND DIEGO E. GURVICH

AUSTRAL ECOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2016 vol. 00

1442-9985

The existence of a coordination between leaf and stem economic spectra in woody species has beenpostulated repeatedly in the literature, with contrasting results. Here, we postulated that this coordination is conditionedby climate factors, being stronger in stressful environments. To test this hypothesis we explored thecoordination between leaf and stem economic spectra in a seasonally dry forest in central Argentina and at theglobal scale, we analysed if the outcome of their coordination varies along a climatic gradient. At the local scale,we characterized leaf and stem economic spectra in 37 woody species by measuring six leaf and stem functionaltraits related to resource acquisition and use, and two functional traits used as proxies of water transport and usecapacities. At the global scale, a meta-regression was performed to analyse if the outcome of the coordinationamong leaf and stem traits varies along gradients of the mean precipitation of the driest quarter and of the minimumtemperature of the coldest month. At the local scale, we observed a high integration among the measuredleaf and stem traits, and this coordination seemed to be linked to hydraulic properties. At the global scale, wefound not only that the overall weighted mean effect size of the correlation between specific leaf area and wooddensity was significant and negative but also that the coordination between leaf and stem traits seemed to beshaped by climate and tends to become stronger under harsh climate conditions. Furthermore, although ourresults seem to suggest that their coordination is context-dependent, alternative strategies could be observedunder stressful conditions.