Title
Intraspecific leaf functional trait variability of eight Prosopis pallida tree populations along a climatic gradient of the dry forests of northern Peru
Date Issued
01 May 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Navarro-Cerrillo R.
Villar R.
Publisher(s)
Academic Press
Abstract
We studied intraspecific trait variability (ITV) in functional leaf traits of Prosopis pallida trees located in eight populations along a climatic gradient on the Peruvian coast. The objectives were (1) to determine the relative importance of ITV at different ecological scales; (2) to understand how functional leaf traits relate to each other, and (3) to know the main climatic factors related to ITV in P. pallida. We used the restricted maximum likelihood method to decompose the variance across three nested ecological scales (tree, plot, and population level). The relative variance decomposition showed that tree level was the main source of variation for leaf chemical composition and stomatal size and density, whereas the plot and population levels were the main sources of variation for gas exchange and structural variables, respectively. Leaf ITV followed the general trends of the leaf economic spectrum, with negative relationships of leaf mass per area with both photosynthetic rate and leaf nitrogen. Precipitation was not related to any of the leaf traits, while mean annual temperature was correlated negatively with leaf relative water content and positively with water use efficiency. Our results highlight the importance of ITV in P. pallida and the possible impact of climate change.
Start page
12
End page
20
Volume
152
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencias de las plantas, Botánica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85041586414
Source
Journal of Arid Environments
ISSN of the container
01401963
Sponsor(s)
We thank the biologist Luis Urbina, Luis Sullon and Celinda Peña for their help during field data acquisition, Salvador Arenas for helping us with the climate data, and the SCAI at the University of Córdoba (Spain) for analysis of leaf N and C concentrations. This study was financed by the Peruvian program INNOVATE PERU, currently known as Programa Nacional de Innovación para la Competitividad y Productividad ( 146-FINCyT-IB-2013 ); Spanish MEC project DIVERBOS ( CGL2011-30285-C02-02 ); ECO-MEDIT ( CGL2014-53236-R ) and QUERCUSAT ( CGL2013-40790-R ); and European FEDER funds.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus