摘要：Plasticity in physiological traits is necessary for thesurvival and development of woody species in the severe conditions of tropicaldry forest. We selected five study sites in a gradient of soil moistureavailability, located in dry forest of India. We identified 12 physiological traits(viz., relative water content, RWC; leafdry matter content, LDMC; specific leaf area, SLA; leaf carbon concentration,LCC; leaf nitrogen concentration, LNC; leaf phosphorus concentration, LPC;chlorophyll concentration, Chl; stomatal conductance, Gsmax;photosynthetic rate, Amax; intrinsicwater use efficiency, WUEi; biomass increment, Bio Incr; relative growth rate, RGR), which are consideredimportant for the survival and growth of plant species in tropical dry forest,and measured their range and plasticity in woody species, including trees andshrubs, across the selected study sites. Further, we analysed the response ofphysiological traits to variations in soil moisture content (SMC) acrossspecies as well as across study sites. Across the five study sites, theselected traits exhibited remarkable plasticity, both within as well as amongspecies. The associations of physiological traits with soil properties werealso significant. The study shows that allphysiological traits under study affect RGR directly or indirectly. However,the strength of effect is determined by environmental parameters, particularlythe SMC. Step wise multiple regression indicates that more than 80% variabilityin RGR can be explained by SLA and WUEi alone. We suggest that for predicting thevulnerability of tropical dry forest communities to changes in climaticconditions, further investigations examiningtrade-offs among physiological traits and habitat conditions are needed.
