Leafing intensity and the fruit size/number trade-off in woody angiosperms

A sample of woody angiosperm species was used to test a central prediction of the ‘leafing intensity premium’ hypothesis: higher leafing intensity (number of leaves produced per unit dry mass of shoot vegetative tissue produced in the same growing season) confers a larger bud bank (i.e. number of axillary meristems per unit shoot tissue) that can be deployed for reproduction, and thus confers generally greater fruit numbers, and hence higher potential fecundity allocation (i.e. fecundity per unit size of the supporting shoot tissue that is produced in the same growing season.
Current-year shoots (i.e. bearing leaves) were collected to record: shoot dry mass, total number of leaves, total number of fruits or fruit clusters (if derived from inflorescences), mean individual leaf dry mass and mean individual fruit dry mass. Sampled individuals (shrubs and trees) were also measured for body size (main stem height and circumference).
Species with larger individual fruit (or fruit cluster) m...

本研究采用木本被子植物物种（woody angiosperm species）样本，以验证“展叶强度优势”假说（leafing intensity premium hypothesis）的核心预测：更高的展叶强度（leafing intensity）——即同一生长季产生的单位枝条营养组织干重所产生的叶片数量——会形成更大的芽库（bud bank）（即单位枝条组织的腋生分生组织数量），而这些芽库可用于繁殖，因此通常会产生更多的果实数量，进而实现更高的潜在繁殖分配（potential fecundity allocation）——即同一生长季产生的单位支撑枝条组织大小的繁殖力。
采集当年生枝条（current-year shoots，即带叶枝条）以记录以下指标：枝条干重（shoot dry mass）、叶片总数、果实或果簇总数（若源自花序）、单叶平均干重及单果平均干重。同时对采样个体（灌木和乔木）的体型大小（主茎高度和周长）进行了测量。
果实（或果簇）个体较大的物种