Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2017, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (6): 650-660.DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2016.0376

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of stem length to stem slender ratio of current-year twigs on the leaf display efficiency in evergreen and deciduous broadleaved trees

Jun-Hui LI1, Guo-Quan PENG2, Dong-Mei YANG1,*   

  1. 1College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang 321004, China
    and
    2College of Forestry, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China;
  • Received:2017-04-05 Accepted:2016-12-12 Online:2017-06-10 Published:2017-07-19
  • Contact: Dong-Mei YANG
  • About author:KANG Jing-yao(1991-), E-mail: kangjingyao_nj@163.com

Abstract:

Aims Branches and leaves are the two main structural units of tree crown composition. Among the adaptive strategies of plants, the functional traits of branches and the relationships between branch traits and leaf traits determine the capacity of trees to access light and space. In this study, our objective is to test the hypothesis that leaf display efficiency is affected by the stem length to stem slender ratio within current-year twigs.Methods The stem length to stem slender ratios of current-year twigs were used as the proxy of stem structure traits. Leaf area ratio (total leaf area per stem mass), leaf density (leaf number per stem length) and leaf/stem mass ratio (total leaf mass per stem mass) were used as the proxies of leaf display efficiency. The relationship between stem structure traits and leaf display efficiency within current-year twigs were studied for 25 evergreen and 60 deciduous broadleaved woody species in Qingliang Mountain, Zhejiang, China. The standardized major axis estimation method was used to examine the scaling relationship between stem structural traits and leaf display efficiency within current-year twigs.Important findings The proxies of leaf display efficiency, measured by leaf area ratio, leaf density or leaf/stem mass ratio, were all significantly and negative correlated with stem length to stem slender ratio within current-year twigs in both evergreen and deciduous broadleaved woody species. This suggested that leaf display efficiency decreased with stem length to stem slender ratios within current-year twigs, which may reflect the role of mechanical safety and light within twigs. The slope of the relationship between leaf display efficiency and stem long-dimension structure traits in evergreen species was not significantly different from the one in deciduous species. In contrast, the y-intercept of the relationship between leaf density and stem long-dimension structure traits was significantly larger in evergreen species than in deciduous species, i.e. the leafing intensity of evergreen species was higher than that of deciduous species. Individual leaf area and specific leaf area were smaller in evergreen species than in deciduous species, which resulted in deciduous species have a larger leaf area per stem mass and leaf mass per stem mass at a given stem length to stem slender ratio compared to evergreen species. It may reflect the conservative adaptive strategy of high consumption and slow benefit in evergreen species. Our results demonstrated that leaf display efficiency could be affected by stem length, and would change with leaf life-span (deciduous versus evergreen).

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Key words: stem length, stem slender ratio, leaf display efficiency, evergreen species, deciduous species