Date: 28 March, 2024

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

Dataset Creator: Z. J. Quirk

Dataset Contact: Zack J. Quirk zquirk@umich.edu 

Funding: Graduate Research Fellowship & EAR-1949151 (NSF); Turner Grants (UM EES); Rackham Predoctoral Research Grant (UM)

Research Overview: 
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.

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. 

File Inventory: 
Table A.3: Monocot trait data (vein length per area, VLA; leaf area, where applicable), plant habit, and occupied biomes. The file contains an abbreviations key for the nine biomes, and units for VLA and leaf area. This trait data is from the second chapter (“Evolutionary and ecological influences on monocot leaf venation patterns”) of my doctoral dissertation. 

Table B.1.1: Leaf trait measurements for investigating leaf mass area (LMA) between living and fossil Zingiberaceae. Each of the included leaf measurements (leaf area, mass, LMA, and petiole width) have specified units, although the last trait ratio (petiole width-squared/leaf area) does not have a unit associated. 

Table B.1.2: Leaf and vein trait measurements for estimating leaf area (LAE) between living and fossil Zingiberaceae. Each of the leaf measurements included have embedded units and are defined as the following: MVDmin (the leaf midrib diameter closer to the leaf apex/end of leaf material), MVDmax (the leaf midrib diameter near the leaf base), dMVD (the distance between the MVDmin and MVDmax measurements), calculated Addl (the “missing” leaf length derived from the study’s equation), and measured Addl (the actual “missing” leaf length to compare with the calculated version). Leaf width was measured at the widest point in each leaf specimen. 

Table B.1.3: Fossil Zingiberaceae Locality Occurrences. The information for each leaf fossil includes geologic age, species, museum specimen number, present locality coordinates, and paleo-coordinates (where the fossil was likely deposited in the geologic past). 

Table B.1.4: Paleoclimate model data. Past climate data is generated from the paleoclimate simulation of Farnsworth et al., 2019, which is a fully coupled atmosphere, ocean, and vegetation model from the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene (100-45 million years ago). Each fossil (with geologic age, species, and museum specimen number included) had a value for mean annual temperature (MAT, celsius), mean annual precipitation (MAP, mm), and carbon dioxide ([CO2], ppm). 

Table B.1.5: Fossil Zingiberaceae trait data. Each fossil (with geologic age, species, and museum specimen number) has the following traits: total VLA (sum of vein length per area for all vein types), parallel VLA (vein length per area for parallel veins), cross VLA (vein length per area for cross veins), parallel vein packing (VP, number of veins per 1 mm of leaf area), parallel vein thickness (VTp, diameter of parallel veins), cross vein thickness (VTc, diameter of cross veins), distance between parallel veins (DBVp, averaged distance between parallel veins), and distance between cross veins (DBVc, averaged distance between cross veins). Units are embedded in the column heading of each trait. 

Table C.1: Growth chamber trait data. This table has the leaf trait data from the Zingiberaceae plants grown under elevated climatic conditions. The table is subdivided by the two species (Burbidgea schizocheila and Kaempferia angustifolia) and each of the six experimental groups, which are based on carbon dioxide levels and temperature (500ppm, 22C; 500ppm, 27C; 750ppm, 22C; 750ppm, 27C; 1200ppm, 22C; 1200ppm, 27C). Each of the specimens has data for the following leaf traits: stomatal conductance (rate of gas exchange through stomatal pores on underside of leaf), parallel VLA (vein length per area for parallel veins), cross VLA (vein length per area for cross veins), total VLA (sum of vein length per area for all vein types), leaf mass area (LMA, ratio of leaf mass divided by leaf area), specific leaf area (SLA, ratio of leaf area divided by its mass), parallel vein thickness (VTp, diameter of parallel veins), cross vein thickness (VTc, diameter of cross veins), distance between parallel veins (DBVp, averaged distance between parallel veins), and distance between cross veins (DBVc, average distance between cross veins). Units are embedded in the column heading of each trait. 

Table D.1.1: Fossil Climate Data (1700ppm). Past climate data for two fossil plant groups (Zingiberaceae and Metasequoia), from model runs at high carbon dioxide levels of 1700ppm (Acosta et al., 2022), across three geologic time intervals (Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene) include mean annual temperature (MAT, Celsius), mean annual precipitation (MAP, mm), cold month mean temperature (CMMT, Celsius), and warm month mean temperature (WMMT, Celsius). 

Table D.1.2: Cretaceous Climate Data (280ppm). Past climate data for two fossil plant groups (Zingiberaceae and Metasequoia), from model runs at low carbon dioxide levels of 280ppm (Acosta et al., 2022), for the Cretaceous, which includes mean annual temperature (MAT, Celsius), mean annual precipitation (MAP, mm), cold month mean temperature (CMMT, Celsius), and warm month mean temperature (WMMT, Celsius). 

Table D.1.3: Climate Proxy Data Comparison. Included are proxy data to compare with the paleoclimate models. Each sample includes the geologic age (Cretaceous, Eocene, or Miocene), nearby occurrence locality, the type of proxy, the climate data (MAT, MAP, CMMT, WMMT; a single proxy may not be applicable to all climate variables), which plant group the proxy is relevant to, and the proxy source reference. 

Table D.1.4: Living Climate Data. Living climate data for each of the two plant groups studied (Zingiberaceae and its subfamilies, and Metasequoia), which includes mean annual temperature (MAT, Celsius), mean annual precipitation (MAP, mm), cold month mean temperature (CMMT, Celsius), and warm month mean temperature (WMMT, Celsius). Modern climate data for Zingiberaceae was from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF.org); Liu et al., 2007 for living Metasequoia. 

Use and Access:
This dataset is made available under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

To Cite Data: 
Quirk, Z.J. (2024). Dataset for: “Investigating leaf adaptation and evolution in living and fossil non-woody monocot flowering plants”. University of Michigan — Deep Blue.