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| Titel |
Spatial trends in leaf size of Amazonian rainforest trees |
| VerfasserIn |
A. C. M. Malhado, Y. Malhi, R. J. Whittaker, R. J. Ladle, H. Steege, O. L. Phillips, N. Butt, L. E. O. C. Aragão, C. A. Quesada, A. Araujo-Murakami, L. Arroyo, J. Peacock, G. López-González, T. R. Baker, L. O. Anderson, S. Almeida, N. Higuchi, T. J. Killeen, A. Monteagudo, D. Neill, N. Pitman, A. Prieto, R. P. Salomão, R. Vásquez-Martínez, W. F. Laurance |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1726-4170
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Biogeosciences ; 6, no. 8 ; Nr. 6, no. 8 (2009-08-10), S.1563-1576 |
| Datensatznummer |
250003947
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/bg-6-1563-2009.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Leaf size influences many aspects of tree function such as rates of
transpiration and photosynthesis and, consequently, often varies in a
predictable way in response to environmental gradients. The recent
development of pan-Amazonian databases based on permanent botanical plots has
now made it possible to assess trends in leaf size across environmental
gradients in Amazonia. Previous plot-based studies have shown that the
community structure of Amazonian trees breaks down into at least two major
ecological gradients corresponding with variations in soil fertility
(decreasing from southwest to northeast) and length of the dry season
(increasing from northwest to south and east). Here we describe the
geographic distribution of leaf size categories based on 121 plots
distributed across eight South American countries. We find that the Amazon
forest is predominantly populated by tree species and individuals in the
mesophyll size class (20.25–182.25 cm2). The geographic distribution of
species and individuals with large leaves (>20.25 cm2) is complex but
is generally characterized by a higher proportion of such trees in the
northwest of the region. Spatially corrected regressions reveal weak
correlations between the proportion of large-leaved species and metrics of
water availability. We also find a significant negative relationship between
leaf size and wood density. |
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