Whole-Plant Seedling Functional Traits Suggest Lianas Also Support “Fast-Slow” Plant Economics Spectrum
Issued Date
2022-07-01
Resource Type
eISSN
19994907
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85133243719
Journal Title
Forests
Volume
13
Issue
7
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Forests Vol.13 No.7 (2022)
Suggested Citation
Sun Z., Prachanun N., Sonsuthi A., Chanthorn W., Brockelman W.Y., Nathalang A., Lin L., Bongers F. Whole-Plant Seedling Functional Traits Suggest Lianas Also Support “Fast-Slow” Plant Economics Spectrum. Forests Vol.13 No.7 (2022). doi:10.3390/f13070990 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/83197
Title
Whole-Plant Seedling Functional Traits Suggest Lianas Also Support “Fast-Slow” Plant Economics Spectrum
Author's Affiliation
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Kasetsart University
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences
Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Mahidol University
Thailand National Science and Technology Development Agency
Wageningen University & Research
Kasetsart University
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences
Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Mahidol University
Thailand National Science and Technology Development Agency
Wageningen University & Research
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
Lianas are predicted to perform better than trees during seasonal drought among tropical forests, which has substantial implications for tree and forest dynamics. Here, we use whole-plant trait comparison to test whether lianas allocated on the resource acquisitive end of the continuum of woody plant strategies. We measured morphological and biomass allocation traits for seedlings of 153 species of trees and lianas occurring in a tropical forest in Thailand during the dry season. We first compared trait differences between lianas and trees directly, and then classified all species based on their trait similarities. We found that liana seedlings had significantly higher specific leaf areas and specific stem lengths than co-occurring tree seedlings. Trait similarity classification resulted in a liana-dominated cluster and a tree-dominated cluster. Compared to the tree-dominated cluster, species in the liana-dominated cluster were characterized by a consistent pattern of lower dry matter content and cheaper and more efficient per dry mass unit investment in both above-and below-ground organs. The consistency of all organs operating in tandem for dry matter content, together with optimized investment in them per mass unit, implied that the lianas and trees can be highly overlapped on the strategy gradient of the resource acquisition continuum.