Physiological and structural tradeoffs underlying the leaf economics spectrum

Summary The leaf economics spectrum ( LES ) represents a suite of intercorrelated leaf traits concerning construction costs per unit leaf area, nutrient concentrations, and rates of carbon fixation and tissue turnover. Although broad trade‐offs among leaf structural and physiological traits have been demonstrated, we still do not have a comprehensive view of the fundamental constraints underlying the LES trade‐offs. Here, we investigated physiological and structural mechanisms underpinning the LES by analysing a novel data compilation incorporating rarely considered traits such as the dry mass fraction in cell walls, nitrogen allocation, mesophyll CO 2 diffusion and associated anatomical traits for hundreds of…

• EC
  European Commission
• ET
  Eesti Teadusagentuur
• AR
  Australian Research Council

  Award: CE140100015
• JS
  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
• ER
  European Regional Development Fund