A meta‐analysis of plant responses to light intensity for 70 traits ranging from molecules to whole plant performance

Summary By means of meta‐analyses we determined how 70 traits related to plant anatomy, morphology, chemistry, physiology, growth and reproduction are affected by daily light integral ( DLI ; mol photons m −2 d −1 ). A large database including 500 experiments with 760 plant species enabled us to determine generalized dose–response curves. Many traits increase with DLI in a saturating fashion. Some showed a more than 10‐fold increase over the DLI range of 1–50 mol m −2 d −1 , such as the number of seeds produced per plant and the actual rate of photosynthesis. Strong decreases with DLI (up to three‐fold) were observed for leaf area ratio and leaf payback time. Plasticity differences among species groups were…