Beyond leaf habit: generalities in plant function across 97 tropical dry forest tree species

Leaf habit has been hypothesized to define a linkage between
the slow-fast plant economic spectrum and the drought resistance-avoidance
trade-off in tropical forests (‘slow-safe versus fast-risky’). However,
variation in hydraulic traits as a function of leaf habit has rarely been
explored for a large number of species. We sampled leaf and branch
functional traits of 97 tropical dry forest tree species from four sites
to investigate whether patterns of trait variation varied consistently in
relation to leaf habit along the ‘slow-safe versus fast-risky’ tradeoff.
Leaf habit explained from 0 to 43.69 % of individual trait variation. We
found that evergreen and semi-deciduous species differed in their location
along the multivariate trait ordination when compared to deciduous
species. While deciduous species showed consistent trait values, evergreen
species trait values varied as a function of the site. Last, trait values
varied in relation to the proportion of deciduous species in the plant
community. We found that leaf habit describes the strategies that define
drought avoidance and plant economics in tropical trees. However, leaf
habit alone does not explain patterns of trait variation, which suggests
that quantifying site-specific or species-specific uncertainty in trait
variation as the way forward.