Non-structural carbohydrate concentrations in woody organs, but not leaves, of temperate and tropical tree angiosperms are independent of the ‘fast-slow’ plant economic spectrum

Abstract

SummaryBackground and AimsCarbohydrate reserves play a vital role in plant survival during periods of negative carbon balance. Considering active storage of reserves, there is a trade-off between carbon allocation to growth and to reserves and defense. A resulting hypothesis is that allocation to reserves exhibits a coordinated variation with functional traits associated with the ‘fast-slow’ plant economics spectrum.MethodsWe tested the relationship between non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) of tree organs and functional traits using 61 angiosperm tree species from temperate and tropical forests with phylogenetic hierarchical Bayesian models.Key ResultsOur results provide evidence that NSC concentrations in woody organs and plant functional traits are largely decoupled, meaning that species’ resilience is unrelated to their position on the ‘fast-slow’ plant economics spectrum. In contrast, we found that variation between NSC concentrations in leaves and the fast-slow continuum was coordinated, as species with higher leaf NSC had traits values associated with resource conservative species such as lower SLA, lower Amax, and high wood density. We did not detect an influence of leaf habit on the variation of NSC concentrations in tree organs.ConclusionsEfforts to predict the response of ecosystems to global change will need to integrate a suite of plant traits, such as NSC concentrations in woody organs, that are independent of the ‘fast-slow’ spectrum and that capture how species respond to a broad range of global change factors.