• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.110-121
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• 2022

Leaf functional traits widely have been used to understand the environmental controls of resource utilization strategy of plants along the environmental gradients. By using key leaf functional traits, we quantified the relationships between leaf traits and local climate throughout the distributional range of Rhododendron caucasicum Pall. in eastern and western Georgian mountains (the South Caucasus). Our results revealed, that all traits showed high levels of intraspecific variability across study locations and confirmed a strong phenotypic differentiation of leaf functional variation along the east-west longitudinal gradient in response to the local climate; out of the explored climatic variables, the moisture factors related to precipitation and number of precipitation and dry days for winter and growth seasons were more strongly related to leaf trait variation than the elevation and air temperature. Among studied leaf traits, the leaf specific area (SLA) showed the highest level of variability indicating the different resource utilization strategies of eastern and western-central Rh. caucasicum individuals. High SLA leaves for western-central Caucasian individuals work in relatively resource-rich environments (more humid in terms of precipitation amount and the number of precipitation days in winter) and could be explained by preferential allocation to photosynthesis and growth, while eastern Caucasian samples work in resource-poor environments (less humid in terms of precipitation amount and the number of precipitation days in winter) and the retention of captured resources is a higher priority appearing in a low SLA leaves. However, more evidence from a broader study of the species throughout its distribution range by including additional environmental factors and molecular markers are needed for firmer conclusions of intraspecific variability of Rh. caucasicum.

• Asian Journal of Turfgrass Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.127-136
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• 2001

A field trial was initiated to examine the range of inter- and intraspecific variations in morphological and phenological traits with five different accessions of smooth and large crabgrass. In addition, a controlled environment study was conducted to determine the phenotypic plasticity among the accessions of both species in response to 4 daily tempera-ture differentials. In the field experiment, significant inter- and intraspecific variations of smooth and large crabgrass were observed in morphological traits such as leaf length and width. However, most phenological traits were not substantially different between the species and among the accessions of each species. The first seedling emerged at the same time, requiring 9~ 10 days, regardless of the accessions and species. In a controlled environment study, all accessions of each species responded similarly to the 4 temperature differentials in seedling emergence, indicating seedling emergence was not a plastic trait. These results suggest that predicting crabgrass seedling emergence could be independent of geographical regions in the US.