References

Biogeosciences

1726-4189

Copernicus Publications

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/bg-6-1563-2009

Spatial trends in leaf size of Amazonian rainforest trees

Malhado

A. C. M.

¹ ¹² Malhi

¹ ¹³ Whittaker

R. J.

¹ ¹³ Ladle

R. J.

¹ ¹³ ter Steege

² ¹³ ¹⁴ Phillips

O. L.

³ ¹³ ¹⁴ Butt

¹ ¹³ Aragão

L. E. O. C.

¹ ¹⁴ Quesada

C. A.

³ ¹⁴ Araujo-Murakami

⁴ ¹⁴ Arroyo

⁴ ¹⁴ Peacock

³ ¹⁴ Lopez-Gonzalez

³ ¹⁴ Baker

T. R.

³ ¹⁴ Anderson

L. O.

¹ ¹³ Almeida

⁵ ¹⁴ Higuchi

⁶ ¹⁴ Killeen

T. J.

⁷ ¹⁴ Monteagudo

⁸ ¹⁴ Neill

⁹ ¹⁴ Pitman

¹⁰ ¹⁴ Prieto

¹¹ ¹⁴ Salomão

R. P.

⁵ ¹⁴ Vásquez-Martínez

⁸ ¹⁴ Laurance

W. F.

⁶ ¹⁴

School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University, UK

Dept. of Plant Ecology and Biodiversity, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK

Museo Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belém, Brazil

Instituto National de Pesquisas Amazônicas, Manaus, Brazil

Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, Washington, DC, USA

Herbario Vargas, Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Cusco, Perú

Herbario Nacional del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

Center for Tropical Conservation, Duke University, Durham, USA

Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Bogotá DC, Colombia

Conceived the study, collected leaf data, undertook the analysis, wrote manuscript.

Developed the idea, reviewed and improved manuscript.

Provided data.

10 08 2009

6 8 1563 1576

2009

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This article is available from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/6/1563/2009/bg-6-1563-2009.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/6/1563/2009/bg-6-1563-2009.pdf

Leaf size influences many aspects of tree function such as rates of transpiration and photosynthesis and, consequently, often varies in a predictable way in response to environmental gradients. The recent development of pan-Amazonian databases based on permanent botanical plots has now made it possible to assess trends in leaf size across environmental gradients in Amazonia. Previous plot-based studies have shown that the community structure of Amazonian trees breaks down into at least two major ecological gradients corresponding with variations in soil fertility (decreasing from southwest to northeast) and length of the dry season (increasing from northwest to south and east). Here we describe the geographic distribution of leaf size categories based on 121 plots distributed across eight South American countries. We find that the Amazon forest is predominantly populated by tree species and individuals in the mesophyll size class (20.25–182.25 cm2). The geographic distribution of species and individuals with large leaves (>20.25 cm2) is complex but is generally characterized by a higher proportion of such trees in the northwest of the region. Spatially corrected regressions reveal weak correlations between the proportion of large-leaved species and metrics of water availability. We also find a significant negative relationship between leaf size and wood density.

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