Within‐individual leaf trait response to local light availability and biodiversity in a subtropical forest experiment

作者：Tobias Proß, Helge Bruelheide, Sylvia Haider · 发表于：Ecology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1002/ecy.70160 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Remote Sensing in Agriculture、Species Distribution and Climate Change、Plant and animal studies

Leaf traits are important indicators of ecosystem functions. Trait values can vary widely between species, and a considerable amount of variation also occurs within species. However, within-individual variation is often neglected due to the limitations of traditional measurement tools. Many leaf trait values respond to light availability, which, in turn, is affected by the surrounding vegetation. Additionally, there is a strong within-individual light gradient, especially in tree canopies. In the BEF-China (Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning China) subtropical forest plantation, we analyzed how leaf trait values respond to light availability and neighboring tree species richness at the within-individual level. We sampled across the vertical light gradient formed by neighboring trees planted at varying diversity levels from monocultures to 24-species mixtures. We closely paired the leaf samples with sensor-based measurements of light availability. We used visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (spectral range: 350-2500 nm) to predict 14 leaf traits across 4981 leaves from 15 native tree species. Using a key feature of spectroscopy-deriving multiple leaf traits from a single spectral measurement of a sample-we assessed all traits simultaneously at the leaf level. We investigated whether an individual tree's direct neighbor or the surrounding tree species richness had a stronger influence on the light-trait relationship. Most trait values responded to light availability, though ...