Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2008
Abstract
The variation in leaf mass per area, leaf nutrients (% carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus), and the allometric relation between tree height and diameter of the black mangrove, Avicennia germinans, were explored in nine mangrove forests in similar environments along a 50 latitudinal gradient in the central region of the Gulf of Mexico, as indicated by a southward increase in temperature and precipitation. There was no correlation between leaf nitrogen or phosphorus content and latitude. Leaf mass per area and leaf carbon content were positively correlated with latitude and negatively correlated with temperature and annual rainfall, whereas asymptotic tree height and maximum diameter showed the opposite trend. Such patterns suggest a trade-off between leaf traits and tree size which may be constrained by the same environmental factors along a dry-cold to humid-warm latitudinal gradient. Abstract in Spanish is available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/btp. © 2008 by The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Biotropica
First Page
449
Last Page
456
Recommended Citation
Méndez-Alonzo, R., López-Portillo, J., & Rivera-Monroy, V. (2008). Latitudinal variation in leaf and tree traits of the mangrove avicennia germinans (avicenniaceae) in the central region of the Gulf of Mexico. Biotropica, 40 (4), 449-456. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2008.00397.x