Journal Title
Title of Journal: Plant Ecol
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Abbravation: Plant Ecology
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Publisher
Springer Netherlands
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Authors: Solveig Franziska Bucher Karl Auerswald Susanne Tautenhahn Anna Geiger Johanna Otto Annika Müller Christine Römermann
Publish Date: 2016/01/16
Volume: 217, Issue: 3, Pages: 229-240
Abstract
Stomata are mediators of gas exchange and thus important for photosynthesis and plant performance The aim of this study was to analyze the ecological explanatory power of the stomatal pore area index SPI calculated via stomatal size and density We studied the SPI on sun leaves of 22 herbaceous species on 22 study sites being distributed along two elevational gradients in the northern Alps ranging from 700 to 1800 m asl We analyzed its correlation with other functional traits related to plant performance namely specific leaf area SLA areabased leaf nitrogen and carbon N area and C area respectively as well as carbon discrimination Δ13C within as well as between species On a subset of four species we also measured lightsaturated net photosynthetic rate at ambient CO2 concentration A sat and stomatal conductance on all sites We found that SPI was positively correlated with A sat yet the relation was weaker than expected The reaction of SPI along the elevational gradients was highly speciesspecific and related to variations in other investigated leaf traits The relationship with functional traits however differed between the inter and intraspecific level in strength and direction SPI was positively related to N area and C area and negatively with SLA and Δ13C for most species However we found no significant relation considering species mean values for Δ13C and N area The relation of SPI to SLA was the most consistent displaying no difference when comparing the relation between and within species This research shows that different processes may act on different organizational levels leading to the detected differences in trait–trait correlations on the inter and intraspecific levels It may have important consequences also for macroecological and modelling studiesThe authors would like to thank the members of the Institute of Botany at the University of Regensburg especially Patrizia König Nina Berndt Désirée Dotter Melanie Hahn Günther Kolb Stefanie Meier Sabine Moll Sergey Rosbakh and Jessica Rossow for practical assistance and valuable discussions We would also like to thank Thijs Pons and Manfred Küppers as well as two anonymous reviewers for valuable advice and comments on the manuscript Rudi Schäufele at Technische Universität München in Freising carried out the isotope measurements This work was supported by the Eliteförderung des Landes Bayern via provision of a scholarship granted to SFB and the University of Regensburg We also acknowledge support from the Bavarian State Forest Enterprise and the district government of upper Bavaria CR acknowledges financial support of the DFG RO3842/31 and the DFGResearch Centre for integrative Biodiversity Research iDiv
Keywords:
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