AOBPreview originally published online on August 19, 2004
Annals of Botany 2004 94(4):507-513; doi:10.1093/aob/mch173
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Annals of Botany 94/4, © Annals of Botany Company 2004; all rights reserved
Functional Design Space of Single-veined Leaves: Role of Tissue Hydraulic Properties in Constraining Leaf Size and Shape
1 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA and 2 Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, 5734 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
* For correspondence. E-mail mzwienie{at}oeb.harvard.edu
Received: 16 March 2004 Returned for revision: 17 May 2004 Accepted: 18 June 2004 Published electronically: 19 August 2004
• Background and Aims Morphological diversity of leaves is usually quantified with geometrical characters, while in many cases a simple set of biophysical parameters are involved in constraining size and shape. One of the main physiological functions of the leaf is transpiration and thus one can expect that leaf hydraulic parameters can be used to predict potential morphologies, although with the caveat that morphology in turn influences physiological parameters including light interception and boundary layer thickness and thereby heat transfer and net photosynthesis.
• Methods An iterative model was used to determine the relative sizes and shapes that are functionally possible for single-veined leaves as defined by their ability to supply the entire leaf lamina with sufficient water to prevent stomatal closure. The model variables include the hydraulic resistances associated with vein axial and radial transport, as well as with water movement through the mesophyll and the leaf surface.
• Key Results The four parameters included in the model are sufficient to define a hydraulic functional design space that includes all single-veined leaf shapes found in nature, including scale-, awl- and needle-like morphologies. This exercise demonstrates that hydraulic parameters have dissimilar effects: surface resistance primarily affects leaf size, while radial and mesophyll resistances primarily affect leaf shape.
• Conclusions These distinctions between hydraulic parameters, as well as the differential accessibility of different morphologies, might relate to the convergent evolutionary patterns seen in a variety of fossil lineages concerning overall morphology and anatomical detail that frequently have evolved in linear and simple multi-veined leaves.
Key words: Morphospace, leaves, functional design space, leaf hydraulics, leaf size, leaf shape
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