Data from: Leaf morphological traits show greater responses to changes in climate than leaf physiological traits and gas exchange variables

Adaptation to changing conditions is one of the strategies plants use to
survive climate change. Here, we ask whether plants’ leaf morphological
and physiological traits/gas exchange variables have changed in response
to recent, anthropogenic climate change. We grew seedlings from
resurrected historic seeds from ex-situ seed banks and paired modern seeds
in a common-garden experiment. Species pairs were collected from regions
that had undergone differing levels of climate change using an emerging
framework – Climate Contrast Resurrection Ecology, allowing us to
hypothesise that regions with greater changes in climate (including
temperature, precipitation, climate variability and climatic extremes)
there would be greater trait responses in leaf morphology and physiology
over time. Our found that in regions where there were greater changes in
climate, there were greater changes in average leaf area, leaf margin
complexity, leaf thickness and leaf intrinsic water use efficiency.
Changes in leaf roundness, photosynthetic rate, stomatal density and the
leaf economic strategy of our species were not correlated with changes in
the climate. Our results show that leaves do have the ability to respond
to changes in climate, however, there are greater inherited responses in
morphological leaf traits than in physiological traits/variables, and
greater responses to extreme measures of climate than gradual changes in
climatic means. It is vital for accurate predictions of species’ responses
to impending climate change to ensure that future climate change ecology
studies utilise knowledge about the difference in both leaf trait and gas
exchange responses, and the climate variables that they respond to.