Abstract: Chlorophyll meters such as the SPAD-502 offer a simple, inexpensive and rapid method to estimate foliar chlorophyll content. However, values provided by SPAD-502 are unitless and require empirical calibrations between SPAD units and extracted chlorophyll values. Leaves of 13 tree species from the tropical rain forest in French Guiana were sampled to select the most appropriate calibration model among the often-used linear, polynomial and exponential models, in addition to a novel homographic model that has a natural asymptote. The homographic model best accurately predicted total chlorophyll content (mu g cm(-2)) from SPAD units (R-2 = 0.89). Interspecific differences in the homographic model parameters explain less than 7% of the variation in chlorophyll content in our data set. The utility of the general homographic model for a variety of research and management applications clearly outweighs the slight loss of model accuracy due to the abandon of the species' effect.

Abstract: Irradiance elicits a large plasticity in leaf traits, but little is known about the modulation of this plasticity by ontogeny. Interactive effects of relative irradiance and ontogeny were assessed on leaf traits for two tropical rainforest tree species: Dicorynia guianensis Amshoff and Tachigali melinonii (Harms) Barneby (Fabaceae, Caesalpinioideae). Eleven morphological and physiological leaf traits, relative to photosynthetic performance, were measured on saplings at three different architectural development stages (ASD 1, 2 and 3) and used to derive composite traits like photosynthetic N-use efficiency. Measurements were made along a natural irradiance gradient. The effect of ASD was very visible and differed between the two species. For Dicorynia guianensis, only leaf mass-per-area (LMA) significantly increased with ASDs whereas for Tachigali melinonii, almost all traits were affected by ASD: LMA, leaf N content and photosynthetic capacity increased from ASD 1 to ASD 3. Photosynthetic N-use-efficiency was not affected by ASD in any species. Leaf traits were severely modulated by irradiance, whereas the degree of plasticity was very similar among ASDs. Only few interactions were detected between irradiance and ASD, for leaf thickness, carbon content, and the ratio Chl/N in T. melinonii and for photosynthetic capacity in D. guianensis. We conclude that ontogenic development and irradiance-elicited plasticity modulated leaf traits, with almost no interaction, i.e., the degree of irradiance-elicited plasticity was stable across development stages and independent of ontogeny in these two species, at least in the early stages of development assessed here.

Abstract: Variability of leaf traits related to photosynthesis was assessed in seedlings from 14 tree species growing in the tropical rain forest of French Guiana. Leaf photosynthetic capacity (maximum rate of carboxylation and maximum rate of electron transport) was estimated by fitting a biochemical model of photosynthesis to response curves of net CO2 assimilation rate versus intercellular CO2 mole fraction. Leaf morphology described by leaf mass per unit leaf area (LMA), density and thickness, as well as area- and mass-based nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) concentrations, were recorded on the same leaves. Large interspecific variability was detected in photosynthetic capacity as well as in leaf structure and leaf N and C concentrations. No correlation was found between leaf thickness and density. The correlations between area- and mass-based leaf N concentration and photosynthetic capacity were poor. Conversely, the species differed greatly in relative N allocation to carboxylation and bioenergetics. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that, of the recorded traits, only the computed fraction of total leaf N invested in photosynthesis was tightly correlated to photosynthetic capacity. We also used PCA to test to what extent species with similar shade tolerances displayed converging leaf traits related to photosynthesis. No clear-cut ranking could be detected among the shade-tolerant groups, as confirmed by a one-way ANOVA. We conclude that the large interspecific diversity in photosynthetic capacity was mostly explained by differences in the relative allocation of N to photosynthesis and not by leaf N concentration, and that leaf traits related to photosynthetic capacity did not discriminate shade-tolerance ranking of these tropical tree species.