TY - JOUR

T1 - Within-individual leaf trait variation increases with phenotypic integration in a subtropical tree diversity experiment

AU - Castro Sánchez-Bermejo, Pablo

AU - Davrinche, Andréa

AU - Matesanz, Silvia

AU - Harpole, W. Stanley

AU - Haider, Sylvia

N1 - 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.

PY - 2023/11/1

Y1 - 2023/11/1

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - leaf functional traits

KW - niche complementarity

KW - phenotypic integration

KW - plant–plant interactions

KW - trait-based ecology

KW - within-individual trait variation

KW - Biology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85171278960&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/b690404e-9dc8-3528-bc97-14030cee3a7d/

U2 - 10.1111/nph.19250

DO - 10.1111/nph.19250

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 37710419

AN - SCOPUS:85171278960

VL - 240

SP - 1390

EP - 1404

JO - New Phytologist

JF - New Phytologist

SN - 0028-646X

IS - 4

ER -