Articles | Volume 12, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5339-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5339-2015
Research article
 | 
17 Sep 2015
Research article |  | 17 Sep 2015

Responses of leaf traits to climatic gradients: adaptive variation versus compositional shifts

T.-T. Meng, H. Wang, S. P. Harrison, I. C. Prentice, J. Ni, and G. Wang

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (27 Aug 2015) by Sönke Zaehle
AR by Han Wang on behalf of the Authors (28 Aug 2015)  Author's response   Manuscript 
ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (04 Sep 2015) by Sönke Zaehle
AR by Han Wang on behalf of the Authors (06 Sep 2015)  Manuscript 
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Short summary
By analysing the quantitative leaf-traits along extensive temperature and moisture gradients with generalized linear models, we found that metabolism-related traits are universally acclimated to environmental conditions, rather than being fixed within plant functional types. The results strongly support a move towards Dynamic Global Vegetation Models in which continuous, adaptive trait variation provides the fundamental mechanism for changes in ecosystem properties along environmental gradients.
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