ArticleThe New phytologist2022
Trait ecology of startup plants.
Article in The New phytologist, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Traits Explain Canopy Tree Occurrence Along Regional Environmental Gradients: A Subset Combine to Be Useful.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Continental-scale empirical evidence for relationships between fire response strategies and fire frequency.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Plant size influences specific leaf area in palms: a case for the diminishing returns hypothesis.Oecologia · 2025Article
- Divergence in functional traits in seven species of neotropical palms of different forest strata.Oecologia · 2023Article
- Functional trait divergence associated with heteromorphic leaves in a climbing fig.Frontiers in plant science · 2023Article
- Leaf-age and petiole biomass play significant roles in leaf scaling theory.Frontiers in plant science · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Startup plants include seedlings and basal and epicormic resprouts. It has long been held that startups have different strategies from adult plants, but theory for what trait differences to expect is limited and not yet quantitatively tested. Three applicable concepts are analogous to human startup firms, R-shift, and trait-growth theory. All three suggest startups should be built with lower construction costs than established plants. This appears to be almost always true in terms of leaf mass per area (LMA), though many comparisons are complicated by the startups growing in lower light. Trait-growth theory predicts LMA should increase progressively with height or total leaf area, driven by higher conductive-pathway costs associated with each unit leaf area, and by greater reward from slowing leaf turnover. Basal resprouts often have somewhat higher LMA than seedlings, but possibly this is simply because they are larger. A number of eminently testable questions are identified. Prospects are good for a theoretically cogent and field-tested body of knowledge about plant startups.
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Registered trials
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