Leaf lifespan and the leaf economic spectrum in the context of whole plant architecture

1. The leaf economics spectrum (LES) has been an organizing framework of plant functional ecology for the past decade. The LES describes a set of trade-offs among traits related to plant carbon balance. Species with a long leaf lifespan (LLS) invest additional material for leaf protection and structural support, and consequently tend to have a lower leaf photosynthetic rate per unit mass than species with a shorter LLS. 2. While the LES is most apparent in comparing species with extreme differences in their traits, it has nonetheless been adopted as a general explanation of leaf trait variation at all scales and in all plants. It highlights the ‘trait-based’ approach to plant ecology, which has generally used a small set of traits to predict whole organism- and even whole ecosystem- attributes. Few studies have investigated the relationships between LES traits and organismal attributes not directly related to carbon economy. 3. We explored the LES in 32 deciduous woody species of Viburn...