RT Journal Article
T1 Disproportionate carbon and water maintenance costs of large corollas in hot Mediterranean ecosystems
A1 López Teixido, Alberto
A1 Valladares, Fernando
AB Larger corollas increase the reproductive success of entomophilous plants, but are also associated with increased carbon and water costs, especially under hot and dry conditions. Minimizing floral carbon and water loss by reducing corolla size should be potentially advantageous for plants living in these environments. We quantify maintenance costs of corollas (water and carbon) in large-flowered rockroses (Cistus spp.) in a Mediterranean ecosystem. We performed field studies of two coflowering sympatric Cistus of contrasting corolla size to analyze water costs. Additionally, we used the larger-flowered species (C. ladanifer) to analyze the effects of intraspecific variation in corolla size on floral net carbon exchange and transpiration rates. We also assessed the mean daily percentage of plant water and carbon consumed by corollas by comparing with that of leaves at the time of flowering in C. ladanifer. Temperature and corolla area increased water maintenance costs, following an allometric relationship where transpiration rate per unit of area increased with corolla area. Larger flowers tended to heat less under strong irradiance than smaller ones in both species, especially in C. ladanifer, demonstrating a stronger transpirational cooling effect on larger flowers. In terms of carbon, temperature significantly affected net carbon exchange rates, which were not affected by corolla size. Daily water and carbon expenses of corolla were ca. 50% of those of leaves on an organ surface area basis. Our results suggest that water and carbon maintenance costs of large flowers in the Mediterranean impose significant constraints to corolla size, ecophysiologically favoring smaller-flowered individuals in these ecosystems.
PB Elsevier
SN 1433-8319
YR 2014
FD 2014
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/94823
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/94823
LA eng
NO Teixido, Alberto L., y Fernando Valladares. «Disproportionate Carbon and Water Maintenance Costs of Large Corollas in Hot Mediterranean Ecosystems». Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, vol. 16, n.o 2, abril de 2014, pp. 83-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2014.02.002.
NO AcknowledgmentsTwo anonymous reviewers provided constructive comments to improve the manuscript. We thank to F. Castellanos, T.E. Gimeno, T. Izquierdo and A. Lázaro-Nogal for fieldwork support. T.E. Gimeno also provided constructive comments during sampling design. We are also grateful to A. Forner and D. López for logistic support. This study was supported by the REMEDINAL project (S-0505/AMB/000355) of Comunidad de Madrid, Spain, and by CONSOLIDER MONTES project (CSD2008-00040) of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. A.L.T. held a PDI fellowship at Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain.
NO Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)
NO Comunidad de Madrid
NO Universidad del Rey Juan Carlos
DS Docta Complutense
RD 2 oct 2024