Trade-offs among leaf toughness, constitutive chemical defense, and growth rates in oaks are influenced by the level of leaf mass per area

Key message

Among the variety of leaf defensive strategies to counteract herbivory attacks, the oak species analyzed in this study maximize investment in no more than one, with high-LMA oaks developing very tough leaves and low-LMA oaks favoring between high concentrations of condensed tannins or high growth rates.

Keywords
Condensed tannins; Defensive traits; Relative growth rate; Quercus; Work of fracture

Publication
Sancho-Knapik, D., Martín-Sánchez, R., Alonso-Forn, D. et al. Trade-offs among leaf toughness, constitutive chemical defense, and growth rates in oaks are influenced by the level of leaf mass per area. Annals of Forest Science 80, 39 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-023-01204-9

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Data and/or Code availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the citaREA repository, https://doi.org/10532/6533

Handling Editor
Erwin Dreyer

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