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Premise

Leaf tensile resistance, a leaf’s ability to withstand pulling forces, is an important determinant of plant ecological strategies. One potential driver of leaf tensile resistance is growing season length. When growing seasons are long, strong leaves—which often require more time and resources to construct than weak leaves—may be more advantageous than when growing seasons are short. Growing season length and other ecological conditions may also impact the morphological traits that underlie leaf tensile resistance.

Methods

To understand variation in leaf tensile resistance, we measured size-dependent leaf strength and size-independent leaf toughness in diverse genotypes of the widespread perennial grassPanicum virgatum(switchgrass) in a common garden. We then used quantitative genetic approaches to estimate the heritability of leaf tensile resistance and whether there were genetic correlations between leaf tensile resistance and other morphological traits.

Key Results

Leaf tensile resistance was positively associated with aboveground biomass (a proxy for fitness). Moreover, both measures of leaf tensile resistance exhibited high heritability and were positively genetically correlated with leaf lamina thickness and leaf mass per area (LMA). Leaf tensile resistance also increased with habitat-of-origin growing season length and this effect was mediated by both LMA and leaf thickness.

Conclusions

Differences in growing season length may promote selection for different leaf lifespans and may explain existing variation in leaf tensile resistance inP. virgatum. In addition, the high heritability of leaf tensile resistance suggests thatP. virgatumwill be able to respond to climate change as growing seasons lengthen.