Within-individual leaf trait variation increases with phenotypic integration in a subtropical tree diversity experiment

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Pablo Castro Sánchez-Bermejo
  • Andréa Davrinche
  • Silvia Matesanz
  • W. Stanley Harpole
  • Sylvia Haider

Covariation of plant functional traits, that is, phenotypic integration, might constrain their variability. This was observed for inter- and intraspecific variation, but there is no evidence of a relationship between phenotypic integration and the functional variation within single plants (within-individual trait variation; WTV), which could be key to understand the extent of WTV in contexts like plant–plant interactions. We studied the relationship between WTV and phenotypic integration in c. 500 trees of 21 species in planted forest patches varying in species richness in subtropical China. Using visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (Vis-NIRS), we measured nine leaf morphological and chemical traits. For each tree, we assessed metrics of single and multitrait variation to assess WTV, and we used plant trait network properties based on trait correlations to quantify phenotypic integration. Against expectations, strong phenotypic integration within a tree led to greater variation across leaves. Not only this was true for single traits, but also the dispersion in a tree's multitrait hypervolume was positively associated with tree's phenotypic integration. Surprisingly, we only detected weak influence of the surrounding tree-species diversity on these relationships. Our study suggests that integrated phenotypes allow the variability of leaf phenotypes within the organism and supports that phenotypic integration prevents maladaptive variation.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNew Phytologist
Volume240
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)1390-1404
Number of pages15
ISSN0028-646X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.11.2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank all local Xingangshan managers for the maintenance of the experiment and help during data collection and the student helpers for their help with processing the samples. Also, we are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on an earlier version. The study was supported by the International Research Group TreeDì jointly funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 319 936 945/GRK2324, and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2023 New Phytologist Foundation.

    Research areas

  • leaf functional traits, niche complementarity, phenotypic integration, plant–plant interactions, trait-based ecology, within-individual trait variation
  • Biology

DOI

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