Independent Evolution of Leaf and Root Traits within and among Temperate Grassland Plant Communities
Figure 2
Trait gradient analysis of leaf size for 76 plant species growing in Alberta grasslands.
Gray symbols are leaf size measured on 432 individual plants in 27 communities. Plants are arranged in order of increasing community mean leaf size (dashed line). Black symbols indicate leaf size of individual plants (circles) and the mean within-community (α) and among-community (β) leaf size (square) for Galium boreale. Dotted lines indicate mean leaf size of Galium boreale relative to co-occurring species (α = −0.8) and along the community mean leaf size gradient (β = 0.4), which sum to determine the mean or total leaf size observed for this species ( = 0.4). The solid line indicates the slope of within-species variation in leaf size in Galium boreale along the community trait gradient (bs).