Si Minyue, Zhang Caiyi, Xiang Chunzhu, Jiang Mingxia, Guo Linwei, Shao Junjiong
National key Laboratory for Development and Utilization of Forest Food Resources, College of Forestry and Biotechnology Zhejiang A&F University Hangzhou China.
Tianmushan Forest Ecosystem National Orientation Observation and Research Station of Zhejiang Province Hangzhou China.
Ecol Evol. 2025 Apr 18;15(4):e71304. doi: 10.1002/ece3.71304. eCollection 2025 Apr.
Specific leaf area (SLA, leaf area per unit leaf dry mass) occupies a central position in both community assembly and ecosystem functioning. Although SLA has significant phylogenetic signals, how and to what extent the evolutionary history influences the variation in SLA remain poorly understood. In this study, based on a dataset containing 1264 plant species belonging to 549 genera and 141 families in gymnosperms, monocots, and eudicots across China, we analyzed the influences of climatic conditions and soil properties on SLA, calculated the phylogenetic signals of SLA, and quantified the relative contributions of evolutionary history (represented by interspecific relatedness and intraspecific variation) to the variation in SLA. The results showed that the interspecific relatedness accounts for 50.46% of the total variance in SLA, followed by the intraspecific variation (36.12%), climatic conditions (30.68%), and soil properties (24.74%). Along the phylogenetic tree, the split between angiosperms and gymnosperms had the largest contribution to the variation in SLA. Other detailed splits (e.g., the split between monocots and eudicots, the splits within Rosidae, and etc.) had significant but much smaller contributions. The relationship between SLA and environmental variables (climatic conditions and soil properties) was different between angiosperms and gymnosperms, with the climatic conditions having larger influences on SLA than the soil properties, implying interactive effects between environment and evolutionary history on SLA. Within the woody angiosperms, deciduous and evergreen species exhibited differential responses of SLA to climatic and soil factors, suggesting a non-negligible role of leaf longevity in explaining the variation in SLA. Our results highlighted a much more important role of evolutionary history in the variation in SLA than previous studies. Neglecting such a great contribution could lead to biased conclusions if the evolutionary rate does not keep pace with the rapidly changing environments in the future.
比叶面积（SLA，单位叶干质量的叶面积）在群落组装和生态系统功能中都占据核心地位。尽管比叶面积具有显著的系统发育信号，但进化历史如何以及在多大程度上影响比叶面积的变异仍知之甚少。在本研究中，基于一个包含中国裸子植物、单子叶植物和双子叶植物中549属141科的1264种植物的数据集，我们分析了气候条件和土壤性质对比叶面积的影响，计算了比叶面积的系统发育信号，并量化了进化历史（以种间亲缘关系和种内变异表示）对比叶面积变异的相对贡献。结果表明，种间亲缘关系占比叶面积总变异的50.46%，其次是种内变异（36.12%）、气候条件（30.68%）和土壤性质（24.74%）。沿着系统发育树，被子植物和裸子植物之间的分化对比叶面积变异的贡献最大。其他详细的分化（如单子叶植物和双子叶植物之间的分化、蔷薇科内的分化等）贡献显著但要小得多。被子植物和裸子植物中比叶面积与环境变量（气候条件和土壤性质）之间的关系不同，气候条件对比叶面积的影响大于土壤性质，这意味着环境和进化历史对比叶面积存在交互作用。在木本被子植物中，落叶和常绿物种对比叶面积对气候和土壤因素表现出不同的响应，这表明叶片寿命在解释比叶面积变异方面具有不可忽视的作用。我们的结果突出了进化历史在比叶面积变异中比以往研究更为重要的作用。如果进化速率跟不上未来快速变化的环境，忽视如此巨大的贡献可能会导致有偏差的结论。
