Responses of soil water content to change in plant functional traits in evergreen broadleaved forests in eastern Zhejiang Province

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2015.0082

Abstract

Abstract: Aims

Study on the relationships between plant functional traits and soil water content is important for revealing potential impact of vegetation dynamics on soil water dynamics. The objective of this study was to understand the change of soil water content (W_s) through forest succession.

Methods

The study sites are located in Tiantong, Nanshan and Shuangfeng Mountains in eastern Zhejiang Province. We measured 10 functional traits for common plant species and W_sin forest plots representative of three successional stages of evergreen broadleaved forests. The Pearson correlation and the stepwise regression were conducted to determine the quantitative relationships between plant functional traits and W_s.

Important findings

Tree height (H), crown area (CA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) were significantly higher for species at intermediate-and late-successional stages than for species at early-successional stage. In contrast, max net photosynthetic rate (P_max) and transpiration rate (T_r) of dominant species declined with forest succession. The W_s in the surface soil layer (0-20 cm) increased significantly, whereas W_s in the subsurface soil layer (20-40 cm) did not significantly change through forest succession. With respect to the surface soil layer, W_s was positively correlated with each of H, CA and LDMC, but negatively correlated with each of P_max and T_r. With respect to the subsurface soil layer, W_s positively correlated with CA only, and negatively correlated with each of P_max, stomatal conductance (Cond) and T_r. Variation in soil water content with forest succession could be explained mostly by H, CA, LDMC, P_max, Cond and T_r, and the ratio of crown depth to tree height (CD/TH) was mostly sensitive to the change of soil water content during forest succession.

Key words: evergreen broadleaved forest, soil water content, response strategy, successional series, plant functional traits

XU Ming-Shan,HUANG Hai-Xia,SHI Qing-Ru,YANG Xiao-Dong,ZHOU Liu-Li,ZHAO Yan-Tao,ZHANG Qing-Qing,YAN En-Rong. Responses of soil water content to change in plant functional traits in evergreen broadleaved forests in eastern Zhejiang Province[J]. Chin J Plan Ecolo, 2015, 39(9): 857-866.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2015.0082

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2015/V39/I9/857

Figures/Tables 5

Table 1 Characteristics of selected 9 plots across successional series in Shuangfeng, Tiantong and Nanshan in eastern Zhejing Province

Fig. 1 Changes of functional traits at the community level across successional stages of evergreen broadleaved forests in eastern Zhejiang Province (mean ± SE). I, early-stage; II, middle-stage; III, late-stage. Different letters indicate significant differences between each pair of successional stages (p < 0.05).

Fig. 2 Changes of soil water content across successional stages of evergreen broadleaved forests in eastern Zhejiang Province (mean ± SE). I, early-stage; II, middle-stage; III, late-stage. Different letters indicate significant differences between each pair of successional stages (p < 0.05).

Table 2 Pearson correlation between soil water content and plant functional traits across successional stages of evergreen broadleaved forests in eastern Zhejiang Province

土层 Soil layer	基径 Basal diameter	树木高度 Tree height	树冠面积 Crown area	冠长比 The ratio of crown depth to tree height	单叶面积 Individual leaf area	比叶面积 Specific leaf area	叶干物质含量 Leaf dry matter content	最大净光合速率 Max net photosynthetic rate	气孔导度 Stomatal conductance	蒸腾速率 Transpiration rate
0-20 cm	-0.24	0.85^**	0.71^**	-0.04	0.11	-0.69	0.82^**	-0.80^*	-0.45	-0.80^*
20-40 cm	-0.08	0.56	0.82^**	-0.24	0.20	-0.20	0.75	-0.96^***	-0.88^**	-0.75^*

Table 3 Pearson correlation between morphological and physiological of plant species in evergreen broadleaved forests in eastern Zhejiang Province

	基径 Basal diameter	树木高度 Tree height	树冠面积 Crown area	冠长比 The ratio of crown depth to tree height	单叶面积 Individual leaf area	比叶面积 Specific leaf area	叶干物质含量 Leaf dry matter content
最大净光合速率 Max net photosynthetic rate	0.29^**	0.38^**	0.30^**	0.06	-0.09	-0.18^*	0.20^**
气孔导度 Stomatal conductance	0.03	0.08	0.01	-0.03	-0.07	0.11	0.17^**
蒸腾速率 Transpiration rate	0.02	0.04	0.01	-0.04	-0.06	0.08	0.26^**

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