The relationship between leaf longevity and growth ring markedness in modern conifer woods and its implications for palaeoclimatic studies

By H. Falcon-Lang. 2000

94 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Growth rings in modern conifer woods were quantitatively analysed to investigate the relationship between leaf longevity and the markedness of the growth ring boundary. Five conifer species exhibiting a wide range of Leaf Retention Times (LRTs) were examined in anatomical sections stored in the Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Surrey, UK. The species studied were Larix decidua Mill. (deciduous), Pinus sylvestris L. (LRT=1–3 years), Picea abies (L.) H. Karst. (LRT=3–5 years), Cedrus libani A. Rich. (LRT=3–6 years), and Araucaria araucana (Molina) K. Koch (LRT=3–15 years). Two aspects of ring markedness were quantified: (1) the percentage of latewood in each growth ring increment and (2) the difference between the maximum and minimum radial cell diameters in the growth ring increment expressed as a percentage of the maximum cell diameter (percentage diminution). The product of these two parameters was calculated to give a Ring Markedness Index (RMI). Five growth ring increments were measured for each species from poorly provenanced specimens grown in southern England. Statistical analysis of these data shows that there is a significant inverse linear relationship between median LRT and percentage latewood (R2=0.86), percentage diminution (R2=0.77), and RMI (R2=0.91), at P<0.001. These data suggest that leaf longevity exerts an important control on growth ring markedness, in addition to the influence exerted by the growing environment (climatic and edaphic conditions). The significance of these results for the palaeoclimatic analysis of growth rings in fossil woods is discussed with reference to two case-studies: (1) the Early Carboniferous tropical climate of the British Isles and (2) the Early Cretaceous polar climate of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1ca50faaabfbfc0d49ea43e8282f4af66ad60154

How researchers see this paper

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In Atmospheric Science

1. F. Valladares
2. U. Niinemets
3. A. Moles
4. I. Wright
5. L. Sack
6. M. Bamford
7. M. Westoby
8. M. Philippe

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. A. Moles
2. M. Westoby
3. U. Niinemets
4. I. Wright
5. L. Sack
6. M. Lechowicz
7. F. Valladares
8. M. Bamford

In Global and Planetary Change

1. U. Niinemets
2. L. Sack
3. F. Valladares
4. I. Wright
5. M. Westoby
6. M. Lechowicz
7. A. Moles
8. K. Kikuzawa

Citations in the corpus

• Ecology of Leaf Longevity (2011, methodology): “Using wood from extant conifers, they calibrate their model with a method relating the fine structure of wood anatomy to leaf longevity (Falcon-Lang 2000a,b; Falcon-Lang and Cantrill 2001) and then test their predictions against a broad sampling of fossil wood deposits.”
• A key to morphogenera used for Mesozoic conifer-like woods (2008, background): “Two of the best recent illustrated syntheses of softwood anatomical features are covered in Heinz (2004) and Garcia Esteban et al. (2002). Palaeoxylologists have paid a lot of attention to the spacing of pits on tracheid radial walls, as well as to the pit outline (rounded vs.”
• Fossil leaf economics quantified: calibration, Eocene case study, and implications (2007, methodology): “A fourth method quantifies LL from the wood anatomy of conifers (Falcon-Lang 2000a,b; Brentnall et al. 2005), but this method is not yet applicable to angiosperms.”