Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 6 8 2009 10.5194/bg-6-1563-2009 http://www.biogeosciences.net/6/1563/2009/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/6/1563/2009/bg-6-1563-2009.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/6/1563/2009/bg-6-1563-2009.pdf 1563 1576 2009-08-10 Spatial trends in leaf size of Amazonian rainforest trees A. C. M. Malhado anaclaudiamalhado@gmail.com Y. Malhi R. J. Whittaker R. J. Ladle H. ter Steege O. L. Phillips N. Butt L. E. O. C. Aragão C. A. Quesada A. Araujo-Murakami L. Arroyo J. Peacock G. Lopez-Gonzalez T. R. Baker L. O. Anderson S. Almeida N. Higuchi T. J. Killeen A. Monteagudo D. Neill N. Pitman A. Prieto R. P. Salomão R. Vásquez-Martínez W. F. Laurance School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University, UK Dept. of Plant Ecology and Biodiversity, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK Museo Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz, Bolivia Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belém, Brazil Instituto National de Pesquisas Amazônicas, Manaus, Brazil Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, Washington, DC, USA Herbario Vargas, Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Cusco, Perú Herbario Nacional del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador Center for Tropical Conservation, Duke University, Durham, USA Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Bogotá DC, Colombia Conceived the study, collected leaf data, undertook the analysis, wrote manuscript. Developed the idea, reviewed and improved manuscript. Provided data. Leaf size influences many aspects of tree function such as rates of transpiration and photosynthesis and, consequently, often varies in a predictable way in response to environmental gradients. The recent development of pan-Amazonian databases based on permanent botanical plots has now made it possible to assess trends in leaf size across environmental gradients in Amazonia. Previous plot-based studies have shown that the community structure of Amazonian trees breaks down into at least two major ecological gradients corresponding with variations in soil fertility (decreasing from southwest to northeast) and length of the dry season (increasing from northwest to south and east). Here we describe the geographic distribution of leaf size categories based on 121 plots distributed across eight South American countries. We find that the Amazon forest is predominantly populated by tree species and individuals in the mesophyll size class (20.25–182.25 cm²). 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