Intraspecific variation of specific leaf area along an elevational gradient
Abstract
We measured Specific leaf area for 23 plants across six elevational sites spanning a total of 610 meters. Within each site, we sampled twenty individuals from each species that was present to determine intraspecific variance in SLA. Nine species showed a significant positive relationship with elevation, while three species displayed a negative relationship. These results demonstrate that intraspecific changes in SLA for most species parallel shifts in mean community SLA values at different elevations. This finding indicates that intraspecific variation in SLA may be a large contributor to changes in community mean SLA values, in addition to species turnover between different elevations. Abundance measurements were taken with five 1.3 X 1.3 meter plots to estimate abundance values of species at all sites. There was no relationship between intraspecific variance and within or across community abundance measurements; however, greater intraspecific variance was positively correlated with species that occurred at greater elevational ranges. These findings indicate that species that exhibit a higher degree of plasticity are able to locally adapt to more abiotic environmental factors.
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References (21)
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