Intraspecific trait variation across multiple scales: the leaf economics spectrum in coffee

Understanding species differences in plant functional traits has been critical in developing a mechanistic understanding of terrestrial ecological processes. Greater attention is now being placed on understanding the extent, causes and consequences of intraspecific trait variation (ITV).
ITV is especially important in governing ecological processes in cropping systems, where only a small number of species or genotypes exist in high abundances. However, it remains unclear if key principles of trait-based ecology – namely the leaf economics spectrum (LES) – also describe intraspecific variation in crop functional biology. There also remains a need to understand whether ITV within crops is random, or structured across environmental, management-related or biological levels of organization in agroecosystems.
We employed a nested design field survey to evaluate ITV in leaf traits in coffee (Coffea arabica), one of the world's most widespread tropical crops. We evaluated ITV in eight physiol...