Variations of leaf construction cost and leaf traits within the species of Artemisia ordosica along a precipitation gradient in the Mau Us sandy land

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2019.0149

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims There would be a trade-off between enhancing water use efficiency and decreasing leaf construction cost in arid plants. We hypothesized that plants in lower precipitation areas could have higher water use efficiency at a given leaf construction cost compared to plants in higher precipitation areas by altering relationships between leaf functional traits (i.e. increasing area-based leaf nitrogen concentration, N_area).Methods Artemisia ordosica is a widespread species in the Mau Us sandy land. Variations of leaf construction cost of A. ordosica along a precipitation gradient and its relationships to other leaf traits such as specific leaf area (SLA), mass-based leaf nitrogen concentration (N_mass), N_area and leaf stable carbon isotopes ratio (δ ¹³C) value were analyzed.Important findings There were no significant differences in mass-based leaf construction cost (CC_m) among different precipitation areas. Although area-based leaf construction cost (CC_a) showed significant differences among different precipitation areas, they did not increase significantly with decreasing precipitation. The relationship between CC_m and SLA was not significant while CC_m positively correlated with leaf δ ¹³C value. There was a strategy shift in the positive relationship of leaf construction cost to N_area between plant-groups in the lowest precipitation (264 mm) areas and other higher precipitation (310-370 mm) areas, i.e. plants from low precipitation areas have higher N_area at a given leaf construction cost. Our results indicated that although high water use efficiency was accompanied by high leaf construction cost, the high N_area for plants from lower precipitation areas did not increase their leaf construction cost.

http://jtp.cnki.net/bilingual/detail/html/ZWSB201911005

Key words: Mau Us sandy land, Artemisia ordosica, rainfall gradient, leaf construction cost, strategy shift

ZHANG Zhi-Guo, WEI Hai-Xia. Variations of leaf construction cost and leaf traits within the species of Artemisia ordosica along a precipitation gradient in the Mau Us sandy land[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2019, 43(11): 979-987.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2019.0149

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2019/V43/I11/979

Figures/Tables 6

Table 1 Climatic and soil characteristics of study sites in the Mau Us sandy land

	经度 Longitude	纬度 Latitude	海拔 Altitude (m)	年降水量 Annual precipitation (mm)	年蒸发量 Annual pan-evaporation (mm)	年平均气温 Annual mean temperature (℃)	土壤全氮含量 Soil total N concentration (mg·g^-1)
	经度 Longitude	纬度 Latitude	海拔 Altitude (m)	年降水量 Annual precipitation (mm)	年蒸发量 Annual pan-evaporation (mm)	年平均气温 Annual mean temperature (℃)	固定沙地 Fixed sandy land	半固定沙地 Semi-fixed sandy land
榆林 Yulin	109.87°	38.62°	1 210	370	1 890	8.6	0.28 ± 0.049^aBC	0.18 ± 0.075^bA
乌审旗 Uxin Qi	108.64°	38.16°	1 270	353	2 322	8.7	0.24 ± 0.012^aC	0.07 ± 0.016^bB
鄂托克前旗 Otog Qianqi	108.46°	37.70°	1 320	310	2 133	8.8	0.32 ± 0.052^aAB	0.19 ± 0.038^bA
鄂托克旗 Otog Qi	108.06°	39.06°	1 420	264	2 450	7.6	0.37 ± 0.039^aA	0.19 ± 0.018^bA

Fig. 1 Relationships between mass-based leaf construction cost and heat of combustion (A), ash content (B) and mass-based leaf nitrogen concentration (C) of leaves within species of Artemisia ordosica along a precipitation gradient.

Fig. 2 Comparisons of mass-based leaf construction cost (A) and area-based leaf construction cost (B) of Artemisia ordosica between two sandy land habitats and among different precipitation areas (mean + SD). Different uppercase letters indicate significant differences in leaf construction cost among different precipitation areas; different lowercase letters indicate significant differences in leaf construction cost between two sandy land habitats.

Table 2 Partial correlation coefficients for relationships of mass-based leaf construction cost (CCm) and area-based leaf construction cost (CCa) to annual precipitation and total soil nitrogen content within species of Artemisia ordosica along a precipitation gradient

因变量 Dependent variables	土壤全氮含量 Soil total nitrogen content (mg·g^-1)	年降水量 Annual precipitation (mm)
CC_m	0.28^*	0.03
CC_a	0.27^*	0.32^*

Fig. 3 Relationships of mass-based leaf construction cost and area-based leaf construction cost to specific leaf area (A, B), area-based leaf nitrogen concentration (C, D) and leaf stable carbon isotopes ratio (δ13C) value (E, F) within species of Artemisia ordosica along a precipitation gradient.

Fig. 4 Relationships of mass-based leaf construction cost (A) and area-based leaf construction cost (B) to area-based leaf nitrogen concentration within species of Artemisia ordosica along a precipitation gradient in the sandy lands of the northern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.

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