Physiological and structural tradeoffs underlying the leaf economics spectrum

What is it about?

There is a broad trade-off across species between efficiency of leaf photosynthesis and leaf lifespan. Here we show how fundamental constraints underly this trade-off. Longer leaf lifespan requires thicker mesophyll cell walls. Thick cell walls decrease efficiency of leaf photosynthesis via increased resistance to CO2 diffusion and via a nitrogen allocation tradeoff.

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