The ecological literature has documented the effects of plant hybridization on phenotypic variation, and dominant, intermediate, or novel morphological, chemical and physiological traits in hybrids. It is important to understand the ecological consequences of hybridization by evaluating their impact on phenotypic expression of functional traits. We evaluated the relationship between genetic diversity of Quercus laurina and functional foliar traits along an oak diversity gradient. We selected five study sites that represent an oak diversity gradient where Q. laurina is present. Using chloroplast and nuclear microsatellites, we evaluated genetic diversity, measured functional foliar traits of Q. laurina in each site and assessed the effects of local climate variables on the oak community and functional traits. We found a greater abundance of Q. laurina in all study sites. We did not find a relationship between the number of accompanying red oak species and the population genetic diversity in Q. laurina, but higher genetic diversity was found in all study sites in comparison with European oak species. Sites with more oak species had more variation of foliar functional traits. Our results do not support the hypothesis that predicts higher levels of genetic diversity of Q. laurina in communities with greater oak diversity from the same section, but we demonstrated an increase in the foliar functional traits of Q. laurina associated with oak richness and climate variables. We highlight the need to consider environmental and ecological variables linkages as regulatory mechanisms of the phenotypic plasticity expressed in changes of some functional attributes of oaks.

生态学文献记载了植物杂交对杂种的表型变异以及显性、中间或新形态、化学和生理性状的影响。通过评估杂交对功能性状表型表达的影响来了解杂交的生态后果很重要。我们沿着橡树多样性梯度评估了Quercus laurina 的遗传多样性与功能性叶面性状之间的关系。我们选择了五个代表橡树多样性梯度的研究地点，其中Q. laurina存在。使用叶绿体和核微卫星，我们评估了遗传多样性，测量了月桂树的功能性叶面特征并评估了当地气候变量对橡树群落和功能特征的影响。我们在所有研究地点都发现了更丰富的Q. laurina。我们没有发现伴生红橡树种的数量与Q. laurina种群遗传多样性之间存在关系，但与欧洲橡树种相比，所有研究地点都发现了更高的遗传多样性。橡树树种较多的地块的叶功能性状变异较大。我们的结果不支持这样的假设，即在同一部分具有更高橡木多样性的群落中预测Q. laurina的遗传多样性水平更高，但我们证明了Q. laurina的叶功能性状增加与橡木丰富度和气候变量有关。我们强调需要将环境和生态变量的联系视为橡树某些功能属性变化所表达的表型可塑性的调节机制。