INVESTIGADORES
SERSIC Alicia Noemi
artículos
Título:
Tree morphology in seasonally dry montane forest in Argentina: Relationships with shade tolerance and nutrient shortage.
Autor/es:
EASDALE, T; GURVICH, D; SÉRSIC, A.; HEALEY,J.
Revista:
JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE
Editorial:
WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC
Referencias:
Año: 2007 vol. 18 p. 313 - 326
ISSN:
1100-9233
Resumen:
Abstract
Question: How does form (leaf and trunk morphology) relate
to function (tolerance of shade and nutrient storage) in trees?
Location: Los Toldos montane valley in NW Argentina.
Methods: We analysed the relationships amongst (1) ten
vegetative and four reproductive traits across 40 tree species,
(2) a distribution based measure of recruitment under shade
and (3) a distribution based measure of recruitment over a soil
fertility gradient.
Results: Ordinations revealed three main axes of species
morphological differentiation: (1) evergreen species had leaves
with a lower speci.c leaf area, greater tensile resistance and
slower decomposition rate, denser wood and thinner bark than
deciduous species; (2) tall tree species that lack spines and
are anemochorous were separated from short, spinescent and
zoochorous species and (3) species were distinguished according
to clonal growth, seed mass and pollination syndromes.
Notably, species recruitment under shade and over a soil
fertility gradient were independent of each other, but both were
correlated with species scores along the .rst axis of morphological
variation (tolerant species have attributes that favour
resource conservation). Different sets of traits were correlated
with recruitment under shade and over a soil fertility gradient
when traits where assessed individually. Amongst shade tolerant
species, recruitment under shade was negatively correlated with
species maximum height, suggesting differential responses to
vertical gradients of light.
Conclusions: These results provide new evidence of integration
between leaf and stem morphology which is consistent
with an evolutionary compromise between high rate of resource
acquisition and resource conservation. Generalizations about the
functional value of individual morphological characteristics and
of strategies vary with the resolution of analyses.