Work Description

Title: Dataset for: “Investigating leaf adaptation and evolution in living and fossil non-woody monocot flowering plants” Embargo Deposited

h
Embargo release date
  • 03/30/2025
Attribute Value
Methodology
  • For Table A.3 (Chapter 2), the functional leaf trait vein length per area (VLA; vein density) was collected from cleared and non-cleared monocot leaves (prior investigation showed no statistical significance between them). I produced three sub-photos of each leaf specimen and used ImageJ software to measure each type of VLA (parallel VLA: density of parallel veins, cross VLA: density of cross veins, and total VLA: density of all veins). I then averaged the sub-photo data to produce a single value for each type of VLA per leaf species. The plant habit data was obtained from the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens’ World Checklist of Selected Plant Families ( http://wcsp.science.kew.org/) and the biomes data was obtained from Kew’s Plants of the World online database ( https://powo.science.kew.org/). For Table B.1.1-5 (Chapter 3), I collected leaf mass area (LMA) and leaf vein/area (LAE) data from living Zingiberaceae species (Kaempferia angustofolia and Burbidgea schizocheila from another research project, and Alpinia sp. from the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, respectfully). The fossil locality data is from the literature and personal communication with some authors. The paleoclimate model data was generated from interpolating the overlap in GIS between the fossil occurrence data and the climate model raster data (Farnsworth et al., 2019). The fossil trait data was measured from fossil leaf specimens (Zingiberopsis sp.). Similar repeated data collection to VLA in Table A.3 was pursued for this data collection as well (measuring sub-photos and producing an average value). For Table C.1 (Chapter 4), I used a porometer to measure stomatal conductance (leaf gas exchange) for growing Zingiberaceae plants; I conducted one measurement per leaf specimen across 5 days and averaged them for a single data point. The other traits were collected after the leaf had been removed from the plant and dried for 3 weeks. Leaf mass was recorded with a micro scale and ImageJ software was used to measure the other trait data. Data collection was the same for the procedures described in Tables A.3 and B.1.1-5 (measuring sub-photos and producing an average value). For Table D.1.1-4 (Chapter 5), I collected living and past climate data for two plant groups, Zingiberaceae (the ginger family) and Metasequoia (the dawn redwood). Living climate data was collected from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility website (GBIF.org). Past climate (paleoclimate) data was collected from simulation runs from Acosta et al., 2022. Similar to Chapter 3, the climate data for each fossil plant occurrence was obtained by using the interpolation function in GIS with the fossil coordinates and the climate raster layer from the simulation runs.
Description
  • This repository is supplemental data (raw data) from my doctoral dissertation (2024). My research focused on how flowering plants respond to changing climates, not only with fossil plants in the geologic past, but also to make predictions on how living flowering plants will respond to human-derived climate change. We can examine these responses by examining functional traits, which are strongly associated with environmental and climatic factors. Studying functional traits in leaves is particularly helpful in this case, because they are a plant’s direct interaction with outside abiotic and biotic influences. I explored these plant-climate interactions in non-woody flowering plants (monocots) and ZIngiberaceae (the ginger family) because they are wildly understudied but have great ecological and agricultural importance. The research portion of my dissertation spanned four chapters (2-5). In Chapter 2, I examined the evolutionary and ecological impacts on a well-known leaf functional trait, vein length per area (VLA) in the entire monocot clade. This work revealed that monocot VLA was more associated with a plant’s environment and its habit (size/form), rather than overall evolutionary history. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 focused on Zingiberaceae. In Chapter 3, I tested leaf functional trait-climate relationships and dicot leaf trait reconstruction methods on fossil Zingiberaceae. I found that methods used to reconstruct leaf area and leaf mass area (important leaf functional traits) in fossil dicots were not comparable for use with Zingiberaceae, and likely other monocots. Leaf venation traits, including VLA and two new traits vein thickness (VT) and distance between veins, were largely driven by changes in temperature, which may provide useful information on past plant-climate interactions. In Chapter 4 I explored leaf functional trait response to elevated temperature and [CO2] in two species of living Zingiberaceae. Venation traits were largely driven by temperature, while stomatal and leaf mass traits were strongly associated with both temperature and [CO2]. This work provided potential implications for how living flowering plants may respond to anthropogenic climate change impacts and possibly offer a plant physiology model for fossil gingers, one that is not attainable with fossils. Lastly in Chapter 5 I focused on plant climate niches across the last 100 million years and explored differences in niche expansion and contraction in woody (Metasequoia sp.) and herbaceous (Zingiberaceae) plants. This work revealed that differences in climate niches are largely due to plant growth and dispersal strategies. My results call into question assumptions made for plant-based paleoclimate reconstruction methods, and recommend further training of these methods with additional plant groups. This dissertation provides new insight on living and fossil plant-climate interactions of monocot flowering plants, and lays the foundation for future research.
Creator
Creator ORCID
Depositor
  • zquirk@umich.edu
Contact information
Discipline
Funding agency
  • National Science Foundation (NSF)
Keyword
Date coverage
  • 2018-08-15 to 2024-02-15
Related items in Deep Blue Documents
Resource type
Last modified
  • 07/01/2024
Published
  • 04/03/2024
Language
DOI
  • https://doi.org/10.7302/f5e0-3954
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