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Carbon isotope composition of tree leaves from Guanacaste, Costa Rica: comparison across tropical forests and tree life history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2002

A. JOSHUA LEFFLER  and
BRIAN J. ENQUIST
A. JOSHUA LEFFLER
Affiliation:
Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-5205 USA
BRIAN J. ENQUIST
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, BioSciences West, Tucson, AZ 85721 USA
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Abstract

Despite the progress made in understanding the ecophysiology of tropical plants during the past two decades (Lüttge 1997, Mulkey et al. 1996), questions regarding relationships between the environment and physiological diversity remain. It is now recognized that tropical climate can be quite variable (see Coen 1983) which could lead to significant functional diversity (increased variation in life history traits) among species due to the tight association between gas exchange physiology and the environment (see Enquist & Leffler 2001, Guehl et al. 1998, Huc et al. 1994, Martinelli et al. 1998, Sobrado 1993). It remains unclear, however, how the subtleties of variation in tropical climate and tree life history traits are related to the functional diversity of tropical communities (Borchert 1994, 1998).

Keywords

carbon isotope compositionCosta RicaGuanacastedry tropical forestfunctional diversityprecipitation
Type
Brief Report
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , January 2002 , pp. 151 - 159
Copyright
2002 Cambridge University Press

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