Strong intraspecific trait variation in a tropical dominant tree species along an elevational gradient  

作　　者：Wumei Xu Kyle W.Tomlinson Jie Li 

机构地区：[1]Plant Phylogenetics and Conservation Group,Center for Integrative Conservation,Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650223,China [2]Community Ecology and Conservation Group,Center for Integrative Conservation,Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Mengla 666303,China

出　　处：《Plant Diversity》2020年第1期1-6,共6页植物多样性（英文版）

基　　金：This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant no.31770569)and CAS 135 program(Grant no.XTBG-T01).The authors would like to thank the Xishuangbanna Station for Tropical Rain Forest Ecosystem Studies for assistance during the fieldwork and Prof.Richard Corlett for the insightful comments and revisions during the 2nd XTBG writing course 2017 at Kunming branch,XTBG.

摘　　要：Functional trait variation of plant species includes both inter-and intraspecific variation;however,traitbased plant ecology generally considers only interspecific variation while ignoring intraspecific variation.One reason for this neglect is that intraspecific variation may be negligible when compared to interspecific variation;however,direct comparisons between inter-and intraspecific variation of plant species are lacking,especially in tropical forests.Here we investigated intraspecific leaf trait variation(leaf area,specific leaf area,leaf thickness,leaf density,leaf chlorophyll content) of Pittosporopsis kerrii Craib(Icacinaceae),the most abundant tree species in the Xishuangbanna tropical seasonal rainforest in southwestern China,along an elevational gradient(703-824 m).We found a substantial range of intraspecific variation in P.kerrii that was never less than 22.1% of range of the interspecific variation among 462 tree species reported before in the same community.Moreover,with increased elevation,both leaf thickness and density increased and specific leaf area decreased significantly.It could be more important for the individuals of P.kerrii to produce thicker and denser leaves to tolerate environmental stress(e.g,soil water availability) rather than having high growth rates at the places with higher elevation in the Xishuangbanna tropical seasonal rainforest.

关 键 词：Functional traits INTRASPECIFIC VARIATION Trade-off TROPICAL seasonal RAINFOREST XISHUANGBANNA 

分 类 号：Q948[生物学—植物学]