Leaf traits and performance vary with plant age and water availability in Artemisia californica.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Leaf functional traits are strongly tied to growth strategies and ecological processes across species, but few efforts have linked intraspecific trait variation to performance across ontogenetic and environmental gradients. Plants are believed to shift towards more resource-conservative traits in stressful environments and as they age. However, uncertainty as to how intraspecific trait variation aligns with plant age and performance in the context of environmental variation may limit our ability to use traits to infer ecological processes at larger scales.

Methods

We measured leaf physiological and morphological traits, canopy volume and flowering effort for Artemisia californica (California sagebrush), a dominant shrub species in the coastal sage scrub c

SUBMITTER: Funk JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7988528 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature