BGD Biogeosciences Discussions BGD 1810-6285 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/bgd-6-3707-2009 Basin-wide variations in foliar properties of Amazonian forest: phylogeny, soils and climate Fyllas N. M. 1 Patiño S. 2 3 Baker T. R. 1 Bielefeld Nardoto G. 4 Martinelli L. A. 4 Quesada C. A. 1 5 10 Paiva R. 5 6 Schwarz M. 7 Horna V. 8 Mercado L. M. 9 Santos A. 5 10 Arroyo L. 11 Jiménez E. M. 12 Luizão F. J. 5 Neill D. A. 13 Silva N. 14 Prieto A. 2 Rudas A. 15 Silviera M. 16 Vieira I. C. G. 17 Lopez-Gonzalez G. 1 Malhi Y. 18 Phillips O. L. 1 Lloyd J. 1 Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos, Alexander von Humboldt, Bogotá, Colombia UMR-ECOFOG, INRA, 97310, Korou, French Guiana CENA-USP, Av Centenário 303, 13416-000 Piracicaba, SP, Brazil Instituto National de Pesquisas Amazônicas, Manaus, Brazil Secretária Municipal de Desenvolvimento e Meio Ammbiente ma Prefeturia Municipal de Maués, Maués, Brazil Max-Planck-Institut fuer Biogeochemie, Jena, Germany Abteilung Ökologie und Ökosystemforschung, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften, Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil Museo Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz, Bolivia Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Leticia,Colombia Herbario Nacional del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador Empera Brasileira de Pesquisas Agropecuária, Belem, Brazil Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia Depto de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, Brazil Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi Caixa Postal 399 Belém, Pará 66040-170, Brazil University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 06 04 2009 6 2 3707 3769 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/6/3707/2009/bgd-6-3707-2009.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/6/3707/2009/bgd-6-3707-2009.pdf

We analysed 1040 individual trees, positioned in sixty three plots across the Amazon Basin for leaf mass per area (<i>M<sub>A</sub></i>), leaf carbon isotope composition (&delta;<sup>13</sup>C) and leaf level concentrations of C, N, P, Ca, Mg, K and Al. All trees were identified to the species with the dataset containing 58 families, 236 genera and 508 species, distributed across a wide range of soil types and precipitation regimes. Some foliar characters such as <i>M<sub>A</sub></i>, [C], [N] and [Mg] emerge as highly constrained by the taxonomic affiliation of tree species, but with others such as [P], [K], [Ca] and &delta;<sup>13</sup>C also strongly influenced by site growing conditions. By removing the environmental contribution to trait variation, we find that intrinsic values of most trait pairs coordinate, although different species (characterised by different trait suites) are found at discrete locations along a common axis of coordination. Species that tend to occupy higher fertility soils are characterised by a lower <i>M<sub>A</sub></i> and have a higher intrinsic [N], [P], [K], [Mg] and &delta;<sup>13</sup>C than their lower fertility counterparts. Despite this consistency, different scaling patterns were observed between low and high fertility sites. Inter-relationships are thus substantially modified by growth environment. Analysing the environmental component of trait variation, we found soil fertility to be the most important predictor, influencing all leaf nutrient concentrations and &delta;<sup>13</sup>C composition and reducing <i>M<sub>A</sub></i>. Mean annual temperature was negatively associated with leaf level [N], [P] and [K] concentrations. Total annual precipitation positively influences <i>M<sub>A</sub></i>, [C] and &delta;<sup>13</sup>C, but with a negative impact on [Mg]. These results provide a first basis for understanding the relationship between the physiological functioning and distribution of tree species across Amazonia.

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