THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERSPECIFIC DIFFERENCES IN SPECIFIC LEAF AREA TO THE GROWTH OF SELECTED HERBACEOUS SPECIES FROM DIFFERENT ALTITUDES

Abstract

Field measurements of selected upland and lowland species have demonstrated a decline in specific leaf area with altitude, probably due to changes in both air temperature and wind‐speed. Both field and controlled environment experiments have demonstrated that the upland species have lower specific leaf areas than the lowland species, under similar environmental conditions. Leaf growth and turgor of the upland species, Phleum alpinum, are insensitive to changes in wind‐speed in the range of 0.2 to 3 m s−1, while both growth and turgor decline with wind‐speed for the lowland P. pratense. Leaf turgor of P. pratense declined with increasing specific leaf area but no such relationship was found for P. alpinum. Copyright © 1983, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved