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Coordinated evolution of leaf and stem economics in tropical dry forest trees
Corresponding Author
Rodrigo Méndez-Alonzo
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701 Col. Ex-Hacienda de San José de La Huerta, Morelia Michoacán, Mexico 58190
Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, California 90095-1606 USA. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorHoracio Paz
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701 Col. Ex-Hacienda de San José de La Huerta, Morelia Michoacán, Mexico 58190
Present address: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, Oregon 97331 USA.
Search for more papers by this authorRossana Cruz Zuluaga
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701 Col. Ex-Hacienda de San José de La Huerta, Morelia Michoacán, Mexico 58190
Search for more papers by this authorJulieta A. Rosell
Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CU, México DF, Mexico 04510
Search for more papers by this authorMark E. Olson
Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CU, México DF, Mexico 04510
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Rodrigo Méndez-Alonzo
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701 Col. Ex-Hacienda de San José de La Huerta, Morelia Michoacán, Mexico 58190
Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, California 90095-1606 USA. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorHoracio Paz
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701 Col. Ex-Hacienda de San José de La Huerta, Morelia Michoacán, Mexico 58190
Present address: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, Oregon 97331 USA.
Search for more papers by this authorRossana Cruz Zuluaga
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701 Col. Ex-Hacienda de San José de La Huerta, Morelia Michoacán, Mexico 58190
Search for more papers by this authorJulieta A. Rosell
Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CU, México DF, Mexico 04510
Search for more papers by this authorMark E. Olson
Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CU, México DF, Mexico 04510
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Editor: J. Cavender-Bares.
Abstract
With data from 15 species in eight families of tropical dry forest trees, we provide evidence of coordination between the stem and leaf economic spectra. Species with low-density, flexible, breakable, hydraulically efficient but cavitationally vulnerable wood shed their leaves rapidly in response to drought and had low leaf mass per area and dry mass content. In contrast, species with the opposite xylem syndrome shed their costlier but more drought-resistant leaves late in the dry season. Our results explain variation in the timing of leaf shedding in tropical dry forests: selection eliminates combinations such as low-productivity leaves atop highly vulnerable xylem or water-greedy leaves supplied by xylem of low conductive efficiency. Across biomes, rather than a fundamental trade-off underlying a single axis of trait covariation, the relationship between leaf and stem economics is likely to occupy a wide space in which multiple combinations are possible.
Supporting Information
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