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FUNDAMENTAL TRADE‐OFFS GENERATING THE WORLDWIDE LEAF ECONOMICS SPECTRUM
Author(s) -
Shipley Bill,
Lechowicz Martin J.,
Wright Ian,
Reich Peter B.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.1890/05-1051
Subject(s) - generality , biology , ecology , trade off , tropical climate , productivity , photosynthesis , tropics , nutrient , economics , botany , management , macroeconomics
Recent work has identified a worldwide “economic” spectrum of correlated leaf traits that affects global patterns of nutrient cycling and primary productivity and that is used to calibrate vegetation–climate models. The correlation patterns are displayed by species from the arctic to the tropics and are largely independent of growth form or phylogeny. This generality suggests that unidentified fundamental constraints control the return of photosynthates on investments of nutrients and dry mass in leaves. Using novel graph theoretic methods and structural equation modeling, we show that the relationships among these variables can best be explained by assuming (1) a necessary trade‐off between allocation to structural tissues versus liquid phase processes and (2) an evolutionary trade‐off between leaf photosynthetic rates, construction costs, and leaf longevity.