Linking leaf economic and hydraulic traits with early-age growth performance and survival of Eucalyptus pauciflora.

ABSTRACT: Selection on plant functional traits may occur through their direct effects on fitness (or a fitness component), or may be mediated by attributes of plant performance which have a direct impact on fitness. Understanding this link is particularly challenging for long-lived organisms, such as forest trees, where lifetime fitness assessments are rarely achievable, and performance features and fitness components are usually quantified from early-life history stages. Accordingly, we studied a cohort of trees from multiple populations of Eucalyptus pauciflora grown in a common-garden field trial established at the hot and dry end of the species distribution on the island of Tasmania, Australia. We related the within-population variation in leaf economic (leaf thickness, leaf area and leaf

SUBMITTER: Costa E Silva J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9679299 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature