Decoupled evolution of foliar freezing resistance, temperature-niche and morphological leaf traits in Chilean Myrceugenia

1. Phylogenetic conservatism of tolerance to freezing temperatures has been cited to explain the tendency of plant lineages to grow in similar climates. However there is little information about whether or not freezing resistance is conserved across phylogenies, and whether conservatism of physiological traits could explain conservatism of realized climatic niches. Here we compared the phylogenetical lability of realized climatic niche, foliar freezing resistance, and four morphological leaf traits that are generally considered adaptations to frost resistance in Chilean species of Myrceugenia, which grow in a wide range of habitats. 2. We estimated the predicted niche occupancy profiles with respect to minimum temperature (minT) of all species. We measured foliar freezing resistance (using chlorophyll fluorescence), leaf size, leaf mass per area (LMA), stomatal and trichome densities of ten individuals per species. Finally, we estimated phylogenetic signal and we performed independent contrast analyses among all variables. 3. We found that both foliar freezing resistance and minT were subject to a significant phylogenetic signal, but the former had a stronger signal. We also detected a significant but weak correlation between them (r=0.49, pone tail= 0.04). Morphological traits evolved independent of any phylogenetic effect. Synthesis. Our results show that freezing resistance evolved in association with temperature niche, but with some delay that could result from phylogenetic inertia. Our results also show that morphological leaf traits are more labile than realized climatic niche and frost tolerance and the former probably evolved associated to microhabitat preferences.