Find research datasets worth reusing

Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.

datasets available to search

ShareScore release 0.9.0

Dataset results

31 results for “Leaf economics spectrum”

Learn how ShareScore rates datasets ↗

dryad32/100

Data from: Leaf carbon and oxygen isotopes are coordinated with the leaf economics spectrum in Mediterranean rangeland species

The leaf economics spectrum (LES) describes covariation of traits relevant to carbon and nutrient economics across plant species, but much less is known about the relationship between the LES and leaf water economy. We propose an approach combining the measurement of two leaf traits related to water use economy, leaf carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotopic composition, and the measurement of leaf morphological and nutrient traits to investigate the link between leaf carbon and nutrient economics and water use. We tested the relationships between leaf traits linked to carbon and nutrient use within the LES and water use traits using leaf δ18O as a proxy of stomatal conductance (gs) and δ13C as a proxy of intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) across 15 Mediterranean rangeland species grown in an irrigated common garden and in a natural grassland in Southern France. The target species spanned a wide range of variation in leaf morphological and nutrient trait values and a wide range of leaf δ18O and δ13C values. PCA analysis revealed multiple associations among leaf morphology, nutrients and isotopic composition, with the first axis alone explaining 56.0% of the total variation across species. Leaf δ18O and δ13C covaried with leaf morphology and leaf nutrient concentrations along a single resource use axis. Species with high leaf δ18O and δ13C (low gs and high WUEi) exhibited a resource-conservative strategy (high LDMC, low leaf N, P and K) whereas species with low leaf δ18O and δ13C (high gs and low WUEi) showed a more resource-acquisitive strategy (high SLA and leaf N, P and K). These leaf trait syndromes and resource use strategies were strongly conserved across sites with contrasting environmental conditions, indicating that foliar δ18O and δ13C can be included as an integral part of the LES for this set of rangeland species. Overall, the data suggest a tight coupling and coordination between water, carbon and nutrient use strategies across herbaceous plant species. A dual δ18O and δ13C isotope approach combined with LES trait measurements is a promising tool to more comprehensively assess the diversity of resource use strategies among coexisting plant species.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

dryad32/100

Data from: Intraspecific trait variation across multiple scales: the leaf economics spectrum in coffee

Understanding species differences in plant functional traits has been critical in developing a mechanistic understanding of terrestrial ecological processes. Greater attention is now being placed on understanding the extent, causes and consequences of intraspecific trait variation (ITV). ITV is especially important in governing ecological processes in cropping systems, where only a small number of species or genotypes exist in high abundances. However, it remains unclear if key principles of trait-based ecology – namely the leaf economics spectrum (LES) – also describe intraspecific variation in crop functional biology. There also remains a need to understand whether ITV within crops is random, or structured across environmental, management-related or biological levels of organization in agroecosystems. We employed a nested design field survey to evaluate ITV in leaf traits in coffee (Coffea arabica), one of the world's most widespread tropical crops. We evaluated ITV in eight physiological, morphological and chemical leaf traits, across five nested categorical levels (sites, management systems, spatial location, plant identity, branch identity). We compared patterns of LES trait covariation in coffee, to interspecific patterns observed across over 700 wild plant species. Patterns of bivariate and multivariate ITV in coffee were broadly consistent with, but considerably weaker than, interspecific patterns associated with the LES, indicating that crops may systematically diverge from global patterns of trait trade-offs observed in wild plants. Physiological traits varied most widely (coefficient of variation (cv) 42–107%), followed by morphological traits (cv = 15–38%) and chemical traits (cv = 3–11%). Physiological ITV was best explained by the site in which a coffee plant was growing (17–55% explained), while ITV for chemical traits was best explained by management treatments within sites (25–36%); morphological ITV was higher even at the individual tree level or branch level and remained largely unexplained. Our results support the hypothesis that artificial selection and high-resource agricultural environments lead crops to systematically deviate from patterns of leaf trait covariation observed across wild plants species. Coupled with an understanding of how different traits vary systematically across multiple levels of biological organization, these findings help integrate ITV into future analyses of agroecosystem structure and function.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

dryad32/100