Abstract
Branch architecture, leaf photosynthetic traits, and leaf demography were investigated in saplings of two woody species, Homolanthus caloneurus and Macaranga rostulata, co-occurring in the understory of a tropical mountain forest. M. rostulata saplings have cylindrical crowns, whereas H. caloneurus saplings have flat crowns. Saplings of the two species were found not to differ in area-based photosynthetic traits and in average light conditions in the understory of the studied site, but they do differ in internode length, leaf emergence rate, leaf lifespan, and total leaf area. Displayed leaf area of H. caloneurus saplings, which have the more rapid leaf emergence, was smaller than that of M. rostulata saplings, which have a longer leaf lifespan and larger total leaf area, although M. rostulata saplings showed a higher degree of leaf overlap. Short leaf lifespan and consequent small total leaf area would be linked to leaf overlap avoidance in the densely packed flat H. caloneurus crown. In contrast, M. rostulata saplings maintained a large total leaf area by producing leaves with a long leaf lifespan. In these understory saplings with a different crown architecture, we observed two contrasting adaptation strategies to shade which are achieved by adjusting a suite of morphological and leaf demographic characters. Each understory species has a suite of morphological traits and leaf demography specific to its architecture, thus attaining leaf overlap avoidance or large total leaf area.
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Acknowledgments
We thank A. Takayanagi, N. Nomura, M. S. Ali, D. Fujiki, H. Shirakawa, Y. Tanaka (Laboratory of Forest Biology, Kyoto University) and K. Kimura (Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University) for assistance in the field measurements. We thank R.W. Pearcy (University of California, Davis) for providing us with the YPLANT program and H. Muraoka (Gifu University) for instructions on using this same program. We also thank K. Kawamura (Laboratory of Forest Ecology, Kyoto University) for assistance in using the HemiView program.
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Miyazawa, Y., Ishihara, M., Suzuki, M. et al. Comparison of the physiology, morphology, and leaf demography of tropical saplings with different crown shapes. J Plant Res 119, 459–467 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-006-0008-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-006-0008-5