Standard deviation of leaf characteristics of trees in tropical humid urban forest with different light intensities

Abstract

It is known that there is still a gap regarding the relationship between basal area, light and the variation in functional characteristics. Admitting that light availability is a good predictor of trait variation, we hypothesize that in environments where there is a greater amount of light, there will be greater variation in the mean and standard deviation of the four traits. If this is true, a greater standard deviation in leaf dry matter content, specific leaf area, leaf area and chlorophyll content in these environments is expected. To test the hypothesis, data were collected on 10 functional characteristics (leaves, trunk and root) in 41 species, distributed in four environments: one with a larger basal area (A1>AB), two with an intermediate basal area (A2ABI and A3ABI) and one with smaller basal area (A4<AB). The hypothesis of this work was not corroborated, since all four characteristics evaluated (AF, TMSF, AFE and Cc_mass) showed less variability in A4<AB, contrary to what would be expected. The fact that the area with the most light (A4<AB) demonstrated this smaller variation in standard deviation revealed that the plants in this environment were greatly influenced by the disturbances, which caused their variability to be reduced.