The Scaling Relationships between Leaf Mass and Leaf Area of Vascular Plant Species Change with Altitude

Sha Pan,Nan Wang,Shanshan Xu,Chao Liu,Yang Wang,Weiping Zhang,Genxuan Wang,Jing Gao,Yan Li,Ive De Smet

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0076872

Sha Pan, Nan Wang + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076872

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Journal: PLoS ONE	Publication Date: Oct 11, 2013
Citations: 62	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Zhejiang University, China Agricultural University

Abstract

The scaling relationship between leaf dry mass and leaf surface area has important implications for understanding the ability of plants to harvest sunlight and grow. Whether and how the scaling relationships vary across environmental gradients are poorly understood. We analyzed the scaling relationships between leaf mass and leaf area of 121 vascular plant species along an altitudinal gradient in a subtropical monsoon forest. The slopes increased significantly with altitude, it varied from less than 1 at low altitude to more than 1 at high altitude. This means that plants growing at high altitude allocate proportionately more biomass to support tissues in larger leaves and less in smaller leaves, whereas the reverse is true at low altitude. This pattern can be explained by different leaf strategies in response to environmental pressure and constrains.

Highlights

Leaf dry mass (M) and leaf surface area (A) are two important leaf traits of the vast majority of vascular plants [1]
The relative changes in these two parameters can be described as a ‘power law’, mathematically taking the form: M = bAa, where b is the normalization constant and a is the scaling exponent [2], [3]. This formula reveals that SLA, the light-capturing surface built by the plant per unit investment of dry mass, is size-dependent
If M scales isometrically to A (i.e. a = 1), changes in leaf size have no impact on SLA

Summary

Introduction

Leaf dry mass (M) and leaf surface area (A) are two important leaf traits of the vast majority of vascular plants [1]. If M scales isometrically to A (i.e. a = 1), changes in leaf size have no impact on SLA. Quantifying the scaling relationships between leaf size and SLA will improve our understanding of how leaves maintain a positive carbon balance and influence whole plant fitness. Both phenomena probably occur due to different biomass distribution between productive and support tissues in large compared to small leaves [7,8,9].

Results

Conclusion