Table 1.

Results of a ‘relative’ partial derivative sensitivity analysis of eqns 4, 5, and 7 of Blonder et al. (2011)

		Sensitivitya to input variable (i.e. shift in output variable due to a 10% shift in input variable)
Output variable	Eqn	VLA	LT	LMA	A mass
LMA (g m–2)	4	0.880	9.00 b
A mass (nmol g–1 s–1)	5	0.249	0.213	–37.5 b
N mass (%)	7	–0.00120	–0.0287 b	–0.0273 b	0.115 b

^a Sensitivity = the partial derivative of the output variable with respect to each input variable (∂y/∂x) × a mean value for the input variable × 10%. This gives the influence on the output variable (in the given units) of a 10% shift in the input variable. ^b Values in bold italics are those which have >10 x the influence on the output variable than VLA. Mean trait values used: VLA, 10mm mm^–2; LT, 300 µm; LMA, 110g m^–2; light-saturated A _mass, 115 nmol g^–1 s^–1; foliar N _mass, 2% (based on the database of Sack et al., 2013). For partial derivative formulae, see Appendix 2 of Sack et al. (2013).