Leaf size and foraging for light in a sclerophyll woodland

Summary1 It has been suggested that leaf size may represent a foraging scale, with smaller‐leaved species exploiting and requiring higher resource concentrations that are available in smaller patches. 2 Among 26 shrub species from a sclerophyll woodland community in New South Wales, Australia, species with smaller leaves tended to occur in better light environments, after controlling for height. The dark respiration rates of small‐leaved species tended to exceed those of larger‐leaved species. 3 However, the higher‐light environments where smaller‐leaved species tended to occur had a patch scale larger than whole plants. There would not have been any foraging‐scale impediment to large‐leaved species occupying these higher‐light patches. An alternative explanation for small‐leaved species being more successful in higher‐light patches, in this vegetation with moderate shading, might be that they were less prone to leaf overheating. 4 Such relationships of leaf size to light across species at a given height may be important contributors to the wide spread of leaf sizes among species within a vegetation type, along with patterns down the light profile of the canopy, and effects associated with architecture and ramification strategy.