小柯机器人

2021年3月24日，美国加州大学洛杉矶分校Lawren Sack、Alec S. Baird团队在《自然》杂志发表论文，研究发现了全球范围内草叶大小的发育和生物物理决定因素。

研究人员发现在全球寒冷和干旱气候下，草的叶片较短且较窄。研究表明，小叶草具有与真子叶植物相反的热优势和静脉发育，但也解释了在寒冷和干燥气候下小叶草的丰富性。禾草在全球范围内的叶片分布说明了生物物理和发育过程如何导致跨种系的趋同以适应全球气候变化，并突出了叶片大小和通气结构对过去、现在和将来生态系统的重要性。

据悉，最容易辨别的生态趋势之一（由Theophrastus在 2300年前描述）是小叶与干旱和寒冷气候的关系，最近在全球范围内这种现象已被认为可由双子叶植物表征。对于双子叶植物，这种模式归因于以下事实：小叶片具有较薄的边界层，有助于避免极端的叶片温度，并且它们的叶片发育导致静脉特征，从而改善了寒冷或干燥气候下的水运输。但是，尚未在草丛中测试叶的全球分布及其适应性基础，草类植物代表了不同的世系，这些世系具有不同的叶片形态，并占据了33％的陆地初级生产力（包括大部分农作物的产量）。

附：英文原文

Title: Developmental and biophysical determinants of grass leaf size worldwide

Author: Alec S. Baird, Samuel H. Taylor, Jessica Pasquet-Kok, Christine Vuong, Yu Zhang, Teera Watcharamongkol, Christine Scoffoni, Erika J. Edwards, Pascal-Antoine Christin, Colin P. Osborne, Lawren Sack

Issue&Volume: 2021-03-24

Abstract: One of the most notable ecological trends—described more than 2,300  years ago by Theophrastus—is the association of small leaves with dry and cold climates, which has recently been recognized for eudicotyledonous plants at a global scale1,2,3. For eudicotyledons, this pattern has been attributed to the fact that small leaves have a thinner boundary layer that helps to avoid extreme leaf temperatures4 and their leaf development results in vein traits that improve water transport under cold or dry climates5,6. However, the global distribution of leaf size and its adaptive basis have not been tested in the grasses, which represent a diverse lineage that is distinct in leaf morphology and that contributes 33% of terrestrial primary productivity (including the bulk of crop production)7. Here we demonstrate that grasses have shorter and narrower leaves under colder and drier climates worldwide. We show that small grass leaves have thermal advantages and vein development that contrast with those of eudicotyledons, but that also explain the abundance of small leaves in cold and dry climates. The worldwide distribution of leaf size in grasses exemplifies how biophysical and developmental processes result in convergence across major lineages in adaptation to climate globally, and highlights the importance of leaf size and venation architecture for grass performance in past, present and future ecosystems.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03370-0

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03370-0

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