Leaf size of woody dicots predicts ecosystem primary productivity

Yaoqi Li; Peter B. Reich; Bernhard Schmid; Nawal Shrestha; Xiao Feng; Tong Lyu; Brian S. Maitner; Xiaoting Xu; Yichao Li; Dongting Zou; Zheng Hong Tan; Xiangyan Su; Zhiyao Tang; Qinghua Guo; Xiaojuan Feng; Brian J. Enquist; Zhiheng Wang

doi:10.1111/ele.13503

Leaf size of woody dicots predicts ecosystem primary productivity

Yaoqi Li, Peter B. Reich, Bernhard Schmid, Nawal Shrestha, Xiao Feng, Tong Lyu, Brian S. Maitner, Xiaoting Xu, Yichao Li, Dongting Zou, Zheng Hong Tan, Xiangyan Su, Zhiyao Tang, Qinghua Guo, Xiaojuan Feng, Brian J. Enquist, Zhiheng Wang

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Abstract

A key challenge in ecology is to understand the relationships between organismal traits and ecosystem processes. Here, with a novel dataset of leaf length and width for 10 480 woody dicots in China and 2374 in North America, we show that the variation in community mean leaf size is highly correlated with the variation in climate and ecosystem primary productivity, independent of plant life form. These relationships likely reflect how natural selection modifies leaf size across varying climates in conjunction with how climate influences canopy total leaf area. We find that the leaf size‒primary productivity functions based on the Chinese dataset can predict productivity in North America and vice-versa. In addition to advancing understanding of the relationship between a climate-driven trait and ecosystem functioning, our findings suggest that leaf size can also be a promising tool in palaeoecology for scaling from fossil leaves to palaeo-primary productivity of woody ecosystems.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1003-1013
Number of pages	11
Journal	Ecology letters
Volume	23
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13503
State	Published - Jun 1 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Key Research Development Program of China (#2017YFA0605101; #2018YFA0606104), National Natural Science Foundation of China (#31988102, #31911530102) and Chinese Academy of Sciences‐Peking University Pioneer Collaboration Team. Y.L. thanks for the support from Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). B.S. was supported by the University of Zurich Research Priority Program ‘Global Change and Biodiversity’. We thank Dr. Jingyun Fang, Dr. Sean Michaletz, Dr. Julie Messier, Dr. Jinzhuang Xue and Dr. Tao Su for constructive discussion, Yitong Yao and Yuhao Feng for their help with productivity data collection, Dr. Qiang Guo, Dr. Danilo Neves and Dr. Jehová Lourenço Junior for their help with R codes and Dr. Xavier Morin, Dr. David D. Ackerly and other referees for constructive comments.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Keywords

Annual evapotranspiration
China
North America
community mean leaf size
large-scale eco-evolutionary patterns
leaf area index
palaeo-primary productivity
plant functional traits

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title = "Leaf size of woody dicots predicts ecosystem primary productivity",

abstract = "A key challenge in ecology is to understand the relationships between organismal traits and ecosystem processes. Here, with a novel dataset of leaf length and width for 10 480 woody dicots in China and 2374 in North America, we show that the variation in community mean leaf size is highly correlated with the variation in climate and ecosystem primary productivity, independent of plant life form. These relationships likely reflect how natural selection modifies leaf size across varying climates in conjunction with how climate influences canopy total leaf area. We find that the leaf size‒primary productivity functions based on the Chinese dataset can predict productivity in North America and vice-versa. In addition to advancing understanding of the relationship between a climate-driven trait and ecosystem functioning, our findings suggest that leaf size can also be a promising tool in palaeoecology for scaling from fossil leaves to palaeo-primary productivity of woody ecosystems.",

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author = "Yaoqi Li and Reich, {Peter B.} and Bernhard Schmid and Nawal Shrestha and Xiao Feng and Tong Lyu and Maitner, {Brian S.} and Xiaoting Xu and Yichao Li and Dongting Zou and Tan, {Zheng Hong} and Xiangyan Su and Zhiyao Tang and Qinghua Guo and Xiaojuan Feng and Enquist, {Brian J.} and Zhiheng Wang",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Key Research Development Program of China (#2017YFA0605101; #2018YFA0606104), National Natural Science Foundation of China (#31988102, #31911530102) and Chinese Academy of Sciences‐Peking University Pioneer Collaboration Team. Y.L. thanks for the support from Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). B.S. was supported by the University of Zurich Research Priority Program {\textquoteleft}Global Change and Biodiversity{\textquoteright}. We thank Dr. Jingyun Fang, Dr. Sean Michaletz, Dr. Julie Messier, Dr. Jinzhuang Xue and Dr. Tao Su for constructive discussion, Yitong Yao and Yuhao Feng for their help with productivity data collection, Dr. Qiang Guo, Dr. Danilo Neves and Dr. Jehov{\'a} Louren{\c c}o Junior for their help with R codes and Dr. Xavier Morin, Dr. David D. Ackerly and other referees for constructive comments. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd",

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AU - Lyu, Tong

AU - Maitner, Brian S.

AU - Xu, Xiaoting

AU - Li, Yichao

AU - Zou, Dongting

AU - Tan, Zheng Hong

AU - Su, Xiangyan

AU - Tang, Zhiyao

AU - Guo, Qinghua

AU - Feng, Xiaojuan

AU - Enquist, Brian J.

AU - Wang, Zhiheng

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N2 - A key challenge in ecology is to understand the relationships between organismal traits and ecosystem processes. Here, with a novel dataset of leaf length and width for 10 480 woody dicots in China and 2374 in North America, we show that the variation in community mean leaf size is highly correlated with the variation in climate and ecosystem primary productivity, independent of plant life form. These relationships likely reflect how natural selection modifies leaf size across varying climates in conjunction with how climate influences canopy total leaf area. We find that the leaf size‒primary productivity functions based on the Chinese dataset can predict productivity in North America and vice-versa. In addition to advancing understanding of the relationship between a climate-driven trait and ecosystem functioning, our findings suggest that leaf size can also be a promising tool in palaeoecology for scaling from fossil leaves to palaeo-primary productivity of woody ecosystems.

AB - A key challenge in ecology is to understand the relationships between organismal traits and ecosystem processes. Here, with a novel dataset of leaf length and width for 10 480 woody dicots in China and 2374 in North America, we show that the variation in community mean leaf size is highly correlated with the variation in climate and ecosystem primary productivity, independent of plant life form. These relationships likely reflect how natural selection modifies leaf size across varying climates in conjunction with how climate influences canopy total leaf area. We find that the leaf size‒primary productivity functions based on the Chinese dataset can predict productivity in North America and vice-versa. In addition to advancing understanding of the relationship between a climate-driven trait and ecosystem functioning, our findings suggest that leaf size can also be a promising tool in palaeoecology for scaling from fossil leaves to palaeo-primary productivity of woody ecosystems.

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KW - North America

KW - community mean leaf size

KW - large-scale eco-evolutionary patterns

KW - leaf area index

KW - palaeo-primary productivity

KW - plant functional traits

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ER -

Leaf size of woody dicots predicts ecosystem primary productivity

Abstract

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Keywords

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