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Leaf size of woody dicots predicts ecosystem primary productivity
Author(s) -
Li Yaoqi,
Reich Peter B.,
Schmid Bernhard,
Shrestha Nawal,
Feng Xiao,
Lyu Tong,
Maitner Brian S.,
Xu Xiaoting,
Li Yichao,
Zou Dongting,
Tan ZhengHong,
Su Xiangyan,
Tang Zhiyao,
Guo Qinghua,
Feng Xiaojuan,
Enquist Brian J.,
Wang Zhiheng
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/ele.13503
Subject(s) - ecosystem , ecology , productivity , ecosystem ecology , primary production , canopy , biology , trait , vegetation (pathology) , climate change , terrestrial ecosystem , primary productivity , leaf size , agronomy , medicine , pathology , computer science , economics , macroeconomics , programming language
A key challenge in ecology is to understand the relationships between organismal traits and ecosystem processes. Here, with a novel dataset of leaf length and width for 10 480 woody dicots in China and 2374 in North America, we show that the variation in community mean leaf size is highly correlated with the variation in climate and ecosystem primary productivity, independent of plant life form. These relationships likely reflect how natural selection modifies leaf size across varying climates in conjunction with how climate influences canopy total leaf area. We find that the leaf size‒primary productivity functions based on the Chinese dataset can predict productivity in North America and vice‐versa. In addition to advancing understanding of the relationship between a climate‐driven trait and ecosystem functioning, our findings suggest that leaf size can also be a promising tool in palaeoecology for scaling from fossil leaves to palaeo‐primary productivity of woody ecosystems.