Larger plants of course generally produce more seed offspring than smaller plants. The vast majority of species, however (and resident reproductive plants within a given species’ population), are relatively small. To help interpret why this may be so, we controlled for effects of between-species body size variation by measuring fecundity per unit plant body size (i.e. ‘fecundity allocation’) – to test whether variation in the latter could be accounted for in part by between-species variation in two additional size metrics: seed size and leaf size. All else being equal (including body size), a plant that makes smaller seeds can be generally expected to produce more of them. Here, we explored whether the same effect on seed production may be associated with variation in leaf size, in accordance with the ‘leafing intensity premium’ hypothesis: a plant that makes smaller leaves can produce more of them per unit body size (i.e. a higher ‘leafing intensity’) – and hence more axillary meristems (i.e. a larger ‘bud bank’) per unit body size that are available, therefore, for deployment in sexual reproduction. We harvested the largest resident plant (above ground) at reproductive maturity from a natural population of each of 72 herbaceous angiosperm species ranging widely in potential body size. For each plant, we recorded total stem/shoot dry mass (representing ‘body size’), total and mean individual leaf dry mass, leafing intensity, mean individual seed mass, and potential fecundity – i.e. total number of fruits (or flower ovaries) per plant multiplied by mean number of seeds per fruit (or ovules per ovary). As expected, the majority of between-species variation in potential fecundity could be explained by variation in body size and seed size. Fecundity allocation (with body size effect removed), however, had a significant positive relationship with leafing intensity (and hence a negative relationship with leaf size). Species with higher fecundity allocation also had generally smaller seed size, and importantly, smaller body size. These results suggest that relatively high leafing intensity may be an important component in promoting the ‘reproductive economy’ of small plant species – i.e. the capacity to produce at least some offspring (despite body size limitation), especially when also suppressed in size (by larger species) within crowded vegetation.

中文翻译：

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生叶强度预测草本被子植物的繁殖力分配

当然，较大的植物通常比较小的植物产生更多的种子后代。然而，绝大多数物种（以及特定物种种群中的常驻繁殖植物）相对较小。为了帮助解释为什么会这样，我们通过测量每单位植物体型的繁殖力（即“繁殖力分配”）来控制物种间体型变化的影响——以测试后者的变化是否可以部分解释为两个附加尺寸指标的物种间变异：种子尺寸和叶子尺寸。在所有其他条件相同（包括体型）的情况下，通常可以预期产生较小种子的植物会产生更多种子。在这里，我们根据“叶片强度溢价”假设，探讨了对种子产量的相同影响是否可能与叶片大小的变化有关：叶子较小的植物每单位体型可以产生更多的叶子（即更高的“叶子强度”）——因此每单位体型可以产生更多的腋生分生组织（即更大的“芽库”），因此，对于部署在有性生殖中。我们从 72 种草本被子植物的自然种群中收获了生殖成熟期最大的常驻植物（地上），这些被子植物的潜在体型差异很大。对于每株植物，我们记录了总茎/芽干重（代表“体型”）、总和平均单叶干重、生叶强度、平均单粒种子质量和潜在的繁殖力——即果实（或花子房）的总数每株植物乘以每个果实的平均种子数（或每个子房的胚珠）。正如预期的那样，潜在繁殖力的大多数种间变异可以用体型和种子大小的变异来解释。然而，繁殖力分配（去除体型效应）与叶片强度呈显着正相关（因此与叶片大小呈负相关）。具有较高繁殖力分配的物种的种子尺寸通常也较小，重要的是，体型较小。这些结果表明，相对较高的叶子强度可能是促进小型植物物种“繁殖经济”的重要组成部分——即至少产生一些后代的能力（尽管体型有限），特别是当尺寸也受到抑制时（通过更大的物种）在拥挤的植被中。然而，与叶片强度呈显着正相关（因此与叶片大小呈负相关）。具有较高繁殖力分配的物种的种子尺寸通常也较小，重要的是，体型较小。这些结果表明，相对较高的叶子强度可能是促进小型植物物种“繁殖经济”的重要组成部分——即至少产生一些后代的能力（尽管体型有限），特别是当尺寸也受到抑制时（通过更大的物种）在拥挤的植被中。然而，与叶片强度呈显着正相关（因此与叶片大小呈负相关）。具有较高繁殖力分配的物种的种子尺寸通常也较小，重要的是，体型较小。这些结果表明，相对较高的叶子强度可能是促进小型植物物种“繁殖经济”的重要组成部分——即至少产生一些后代的能力（尽管体型有限），特别是当尺寸也受到抑制时（通过更大的物种）在拥挤的植被中。