title: Significant Phylogenetic Signal and Climate-Related Trends in Leaf Caloric Value from Tropical to Cold-Temperate Forests.
abstract: Leaf caloric value (LCV) is a useful index to represent the conversion efficiency of leaves for solar energy. We investigated the spatial pattern of LCV and explored the factors (phylogeny, climate, and soil) that influence them at a large scale by determining LCV standardized by leaf area in 920 plant species from nine forest communities along the 3700 km North-South Transect of Eastern China. LCV ranged from 0.024 to 1.056 kJ cm-2with an average of 0.151 kJ cm-2. LCV declined linearly with increasing latitude along the transect. Altogether, 57.29% of the total variation in LCV was explained by phylogenetic group (44.03% of variation), climate (1.27%), soil (0.02%) and their interacting effects. Significant phylogenetic signals in LCV were observed not only within forest communities but also across the whole transect. This phylogenetic signal was higher at higher latitudes, reflecting latitudinal change in the species composition of forest communities from complex to simple. We inferred that climate influences the spatial pattern of LCV through directly regulating the species composition of plant communities, since most plant species might tolerate only a limited temperature range. Our findings provide new insights into the adaptive mechanisms in plant traits in future studies.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Forest Resources &Ecosystem Processes of Beijing, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.|Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Guangyan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Forest Resources &Ecosystem Processes of Beijing, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Jiahui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Meiling
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Forest Resources &Ecosystem Processes of Beijing, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Jihua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Nianpeng
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D002980:Climate; D003080:Cold Temperature; D065928:Forests; D010802:Phylogeny; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000378:metabolism*; D014329:Tropical Climate