For leaf measurements, 20 fully expanded and undamaged leaves were selected for each plant taxa. Any petiole was removed and the leaves were cleaned. Leaf dry matter contents were calculated according to Wilson et al. (1999). In order to calculate the leaf dry weight, the leaves were placed in a drying oven at 75°C until they reached a constant weight. Then they were weighed and the dry weight of the leaves was determined. In order to determine leaf area, measurement software, developed by the University of Sheffield, was used. The SLAs of the leaf samples were calculated by using the following equation mm2 mg-1:
Mean leaf area (mm2)
SLA=
Mean leaf dry weight (mg)
The predictor variables were put into the customized spreadsheet program and the CSR
strategies of the plant taxa was calculated automatically.