Structural plasticity in leaves of Schinus terebinthifolius (Anacardiaceae) populations from three contrasting tropical ecosystems1

Abstract

Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi (Anacardiaceae) is a pioneer tropical species that has been largely used in Brazil for land restoration. The species occurrence encompasses inland ecosystems such as the neotropical savanna (cerrado sensu stricto; Cerrado domain) through coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and the restinga (Atlantic Forest domain), all of which are characterized by environmental factors that highly contrast with one another. We analyzed the leaf anatomy of S. terebinthifolius populations from those three ecosystems aiming to verify whether any particular trait would provide the species with foliar anatomical plasticity, thereby enabling it to adapt to such environmentally disparate areas. We found that thickness of the leaf blade, adaxial palisade parenchyma, and spongy parenchyma differed significantly among the three ecosystems. The population from the restinga, an open, coastal ecosystem subjected to high light incidence, showed the highest means for these variables, followed by the populations from mangrove and cerrado. Leaf blade thickness in the restinga population was higher due mainly to increased palisade parenchyma thickness. The adaxial palisade parenchyma thickness in mangrove individuals was more than double the one in the cerrado population. The abaxial palisade parenchyma thickness showed no difference between the mangrove and restinga populations, yet in those two it was higher than in the cerrado population. Schinus terebinthifolius was revealed to have high potential of acclimating to different ecosystems, owing to a high capacity of developing anatomical responses to distinct stress conditions imposed by the surrounding environment, which confirms the species high phenotypic plasticity. Such high capacity of acclimating to contrasting environmental conditions by means of modulating the thickness of different leaf tissues could provide the species with an adaptive advantage in a climate-change scenario.