Structural adaptation rather than water conservation was observed in Scotspine over a range of wet to dry climates

We investigated the functional and structural responses of Scots pine to cl imate and estimated the importance of the genotype on the traits studied. W e analysed C-13 isotope discrimination (Delta(13)C) of various provenances in a common garden experiment and gas exchange characteristics for provenan ces growing in their natural environment. No clear climatic trend was found in the foliar Delta(13)C values of common garden trees. Similar results we re obtained from estimation of lambda (a largely VPD, temperature and light independent measure of intrinsic water use efficiency) from the gas exchan ge data. The ratio of needle mass to unit stem area and branch area to stem area increased towards south in both experiments and hence, seemed to be g enetic. Trees from drier and warmer conditions seemed not to have either lo wer needle mass or higher intrinsic water use efficiency compared to northe rn latitudes.