Rapid leaf deployment strategies in a deciduous savanna

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dc.contributor.authorFebruary, Edmund Carlen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorHiggins, Steven Ianen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2016-10-31T07:44:35Z
dc.date.available2016-10-31T07:44:35Z
dc.date.issued2016en_ZA
dc.description.abstractDeciduous plants avoid the costs of maintaining leaves in the unfavourable season, but carry the costs of constructing new leaves every year. Deciduousness is therefore expected in ecological situations with pronounced seasonality and low costs of leaf construction. In our study system, a seasonally dry tropical savanna, many trees are deciduous, suggesting that leaf construction costs must be low. Previous studies have, however, shown that nitrogen is limiting in this system, suggesting that leaf construction costs are high. Here we examine this conundrum using a time series of soil moisture availability, leaf phenology and nitrogen distribution in the tree canopy to illustrate how trees resorb nitrogen before leaf abscission and use stored reserves of nitrogen and carbon to construct new leaves at the onset of the growing season. Our results show that trees deployed leaves shortly before and in anticipation of the first rains with its associated pulse of nitrogen mineralisation. Our results also show that trees rapidly constructed a full canopy of leaves within two weeks of the first rains. We detected an increase in leaf nitrogen content that corresponded with the first rains and with the movement of nitrogen to more distal branches, suggesting that stored nitrogen reserves are used to construct leaves. Furthermore the stable carbon isotope ratios (δ 13 C) of these leaves suggest the use of stored carbon for leaf construction. Our findings suggest that the early deployment of leaves using stored nitrogen and carbon reserves is a strategy that is integrally linked with the onset of the first rains. This strategy may confer a competitive advantage over species that deploy leaves at or after the onset of the rains.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationFebruary, E. C., & Higgins, S. I. (2016). Rapid leaf deployment strategies in a deciduous savanna. <i>PLoS One</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22381en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationFebruary, Edmund Carl, and Steven Ian Higgins "Rapid leaf deployment strategies in a deciduous savanna." <i>PLoS One</i> (2016) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22381en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationFebruary, E. C., & Higgins, S. I. (2016). Rapid leaf deployment strategies in a deciduous savanna. PloS one, 11(6), e0157833. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0157833en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - February, Edmund Carl AU - Higgins, Steven Ian AB - Deciduous plants avoid the costs of maintaining leaves in the unfavourable season, but carry the costs of constructing new leaves every year. Deciduousness is therefore expected in ecological situations with pronounced seasonality and low costs of leaf construction. In our study system, a seasonally dry tropical savanna, many trees are deciduous, suggesting that leaf construction costs must be low. Previous studies have, however, shown that nitrogen is limiting in this system, suggesting that leaf construction costs are high. Here we examine this conundrum using a time series of soil moisture availability, leaf phenology and nitrogen distribution in the tree canopy to illustrate how trees resorb nitrogen before leaf abscission and use stored reserves of nitrogen and carbon to construct new leaves at the onset of the growing season. Our results show that trees deployed leaves shortly before and in anticipation of the first rains with its associated pulse of nitrogen mineralisation. Our results also show that trees rapidly constructed a full canopy of leaves within two weeks of the first rains. We detected an increase in leaf nitrogen content that corresponded with the first rains and with the movement of nitrogen to more distal branches, suggesting that stored nitrogen reserves are used to construct leaves. Furthermore the stable carbon isotope ratios (δ 13 C) of these leaves suggest the use of stored carbon for leaf construction. Our findings suggest that the early deployment of leaves using stored nitrogen and carbon reserves is a strategy that is integrally linked with the onset of the first rains. This strategy may confer a competitive advantage over species that deploy leaves at or after the onset of the rains. DA - 2016 DB - OpenUCT DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0157833 DP - University of Cape Town J1 - PLoS One LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2016 T1 - Rapid leaf deployment strategies in a deciduous savanna TI - Rapid leaf deployment strategies in a deciduous savanna UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22381 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157833en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/22381
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationFebruary EC, Higgins SI. Rapid leaf deployment strategies in a deciduous savanna. PLoS One. 2016; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22381.en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Biological Sciencesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en_ZA
dc.rights.holder© 2016 February, Higginsen_ZA
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0en_ZA
dc.sourcePLoS Oneen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://journals.plos.org/plosoneen_ZA
dc.subject.otherLeavesen_ZA
dc.subject.otherTreesen_ZA
dc.subject.otherSeasonsen_ZA
dc.subject.otherDendrologyen_ZA
dc.subject.otherGrasslandsen_ZA
dc.subject.otherConifersen_ZA
dc.subject.otherHerbivoryen_ZA
dc.subject.otherPhotosynthesisen_ZA
dc.titleRapid leaf deployment strategies in a deciduous savannaen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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