Experimental evidence that the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model best describes the evolution of leaf litter decomposability.

ABSTRACT: Leaf litter decomposability is an important effect trait for ecosystem functioning. However, it is unknown how this effect trait evolved through plant history as a leaf 'afterlife' integrator of the evolution of multiple underlying traits upon which adaptive selection must have acted. Did decomposability evolve in a Brownian fashion without any constraints? Was evolution rapid at first and then slowed? Or was there an underlying mean-reverting process that makes the evolution of extreme trait values unlikely? Here, we test the hypothesis that the evolution of decomposability has undergone certain mean-reverting forces due to strong constraints and trade-offs in the leaf traits that have afterlife effects on litter quality to decomposers. In order to test this, we examined the leaf litter d

SUBMITTER: Pan X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4228609 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature