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Evolutionary divergence of leaf width and its correlates.

Wade C Tozer¹, Barbara Rice¹, Mark Westoby¹

¹Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia.

American Journal of Botany

|March 19, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Leaf width evolution shows surprising inconsistency. Recent leaf trait and habitat divergence do not consistently track leaf width changes, despite broad correlations across species. Earlier evolutionary events likely explain these patterns.

Keywords:

environmental variables leaf size leaf temperature leaf traits phylogenetic independent contrasts sclerophylly

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Relating Stomatal Conductance to Leaf Functional Traits

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Area of Science:

Plant evolutionary biology
Ecology
Phylogenetics

Background:

Leaf dimensions exhibit significant interspecific variation, a long-standing puzzle in ecology.
This variation is presumed to result from selective pressures on leaf function, but specific drivers remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the consistency of plant trait and habitat variable divergence in relation to leaf width divergence.
To assess recent evolutionary events in the flora of New South Wales, Australia.

Main Methods:

Examined over 80 plant traits and habitat variables across 25 independent contrasts (PICs) representing species with substantial leaf width divergence.
Utilized outgroup species to infer the direction of divergence, with most PICs occurring within genera, indicating recent evolutionary events.

Main Results:

No single plant trait or habitat variable consistently associated with leaf width divergence across all studied events.
Few variables showed consistent directional divergence with leaf width, contrary to expectations.
Observed broad correlations between traits/habitat variables and leaf width across species, but these were not consistently reflected in recent divergence events.

Conclusions:

Recent evolutionary divergence in leaf width is not tightly linked to concurrent divergence in other traits or environments.
Existing broad-scale correlations between leaf traits, habitat, and leaf width are likely shaped by earlier phylogenetic divergence events.