In plant leaves, resource use follows a trade‐off between rapid resource capture and
conservative storage. This “worldwide leaf economics spectrum” consists of a suite of …

Phenotypic plasticity is a key mechanism by which plants respond to changing or
heterogeneous conditions. Efforts to predict phenotypic plasticity across plant species have …

The leaf economics spectrum (LES) provides a useful framework for examining species
strategies as shaped by their evolutionary history. However, that spectrum, as originally …

The life span of leaves increases with their mass per unit area (LMA). It is unclear why. Here,
we show that this empirical generalization (the foundation of the worldwide leaf economics …

Ecology Letters (2011) 14: 91–100 Abstract The leaf economics spectrum describes biome‐
invariant scaling functions for leaf functional traits that relate to global primary productivity …

The leaf economics spectrum (LES) has been an organizing framework of plant functional
ecology for the past decade. The LES describes a set of trade‐offs among traits related to …

It has been recently proposed that leaf vein length per area (VLA) is the major determinant of
leaf mass per area (LMA), and would thereby determine other traits of the leaf economic …

The universal importance of leaf structure and function to plant physiology, evolution, and
ecology has generated great interest in developing a general understanding of leaf trait …

Studies of size‐related plant traits have established a suite of mathematical functions
describing whole plant investment and allocation. In parallel, studies of plant 'economic …

The leaf economics spectrum (LES) characterizes multivariate correlations that confine the
global diversity of leaf functional traits onto a single axis of variation. Although LES is well …