Effects of needle age on leaf traits and their correlations of Pinus koraiensis across different regions

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2020.0352

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims Leaf age is an important factor affecting trait variation during ontogenetic development of plants. The variation of traits across a gradient of leaf ages can reflect the response of plants to environmental changes. Our aim was to investigate the variation of needle morphological traits of Pinus koraiensis at different needle ages and the influence of latitude and needle age on the correlation of morphological traits.
Methods In this study, adult Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) of four mixed broadleaved-Korean pine forests in northeast China was selected as the research object. We measured the leaf lifespan, as well as specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), needle density (ND) and needle volume (NV) of needles at different ages. The correlation between morphological traits of pine leaves was discussed and the effects of latitude and needle age on these correlations were examined.
Important findings (1) Leaf lifespan of P. koraiensis significantly varied with latitudes, and showed a unimodal pattern with increasing latitude. (2) Needle age accounted for the largest proportion (34.2%-80.1%) in trait variations, and had a significant influence on all the four leaf morphological traits. SLA, LDMC and ND of the current year leaves showed higher plasticity than other age classes, while NVshowed high plasticity at all age classes. (3) Most of these trait-trait correlations were significant at different latitudes, while the patterns of slopes of the regression lines among traits did vary across the latitudinal gradient. (4) The correlations among traits within different needle ages classes were all significant, but showing different patterns across needle ages. For example, the regression slope of SLA and NDdecreased with the increase of needle age, while the regression slope of ND and NV was opposite. The results showed that the variation and correlation of morphological traits were significantly influenced by latitude and needle age, the collaboration among these traits responded to the environmental changes at different latitudes, and the resource utilization strategies of needles were different in different ages.

Key words: Pinus koraiensis, needle age, latitude, specific leaf area, plasticity

ZHANG Zi-Yan, JIN Guang-Ze, LIU Zhi-Li. Effects of needle age on leaf traits and their correlations of Pinus koraiensis across different regions[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2021, 45(3): 253-264.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2020.0352

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2021/V45/I3/253

Figures/Tables 8

Table 1 Details of the sample sites

地点 Sites	纬度 Latitude (N)	经度 Longitude (E)	海拔 Elevation (m)	年平均气温 MAT (℃)	年降水量 MAP (mm)
长白山 Changbai Mountain	42.38°	128.08°	852	3.6	700.0
穆棱 Muling	43.48°	130.24°	611	2.8	513.5
丰林 Fenglin	48.06°	129.12°	351	-0.5	640.5
胜山 Shengshan	49.30°	126.48°	510	-2.0	519.9

Fig. 1 Comparison of leaf lifespan of Pinus koraiensis among sites across different regions. CBS, Changbai Mountain; ML, Muling; FL, Fenglin; SS, Shengshan. Different lowercase letters indicate that there were significant differences in leaf lifespan among sites (p < 0.05).

Fig. 2 Variance decomposition of leaf trait variation of Pinus koraiensis. LDMC, leaf dry matter content; ND, needle density; NV, needle volume; SLA, specific leaf area.

Fig. 3 Variation and plasticity of leaf morphological traits of Pinus koraiensis along the gradient of needle ages (mean ± SD). LDMC, leaf dry matter content; ND, needle density; NV, needle volume; SLA, specific leaf area. Different lowercase letters indicate that the traits were significantly different at different needle ages (p < 0.05).

Table 2 Differences in leaf morphological traits of Pinus koraiensis across different regions between the mean values of the current year and those of overall age classes (SD)

样点 Site	龄级 Age classes	比叶面积 SLA (cm²·g^-1)	叶干物质含量 LDMC (g·g^-1)	针叶密度 ND (g·cm^-3)	针叶体积 NV (cm³)
长白山 Changbai Mountain	当年生 Current year	105.6 (8.06)^Ab	0.29 (0.01)^Bc	0.32 (0.03)^Ba	0.05 (0.01)^Ac
长白山 Changbai Mountain	所有龄级 Overall age	89.7 (4.29)^Ba	0.36 (0.00)^Ac	0.37 (0.02)^Aa	0.04 (0.00)^Bd
穆棱 Muling	当年生 Current year	88.0 (7.37)^Ac	0.34 (0.02)^Ba	0.29 (0.01)^Bb	0.10 (0.02)^Aa
穆棱 Muling	所有龄级 Overall age	72.3 (5.24)^Bc	0.40 (0.00)^Aa	0.36 (0.03)^Aab	0.11 (0.02)^Aa
丰林 Fenglin	当年生 Current year	113.7 (9.06)^Aa	0.34 (0.02)^Bc	0.26 (0.01)^Bc	0.07 (0.01)^Bb
丰林 Fenglin	所有龄级 Overall age	85.3 (8.17)^Ba	0.38 (0.01)^Ab	0.34 (0.02)^Ab	0.08 (0.01)^Ab
胜山 Shengshan	当年生 Current year	104.2 (7.26)^Ab	0.31 (0.01)^Bb	0.32 (0.03)^Ba	0.07 (0.01)^Ab
胜山 Shengshan	所有龄级 Overall age	78.1 (5.27)^Bb	0.37 (0.02)^Abc	0.36 (0.03)^Aab	0.06 (0.01)^Bc
可塑性 Plasticity (%)	当年生 Current year	22.6	16.4	19.4	51.5
可塑性 Plasticity (%)	所有龄级 Overall age	19.4	9.5	8.9	64.5

Fig. 4 Effects of latitude on correlations between leaf morphological traits of Pinus koraiensis. Different lowercase letters indicate that there were significant differences between the slopes of different sites, and the solid lines indicate that the regressions were significant (p < 0.05). CBS, Changbai Mountain; FL, Fenglin; ML, Muling; SS, Shengshan. LDMC, leaf dry matter content; ND, needle density; NV, needle volume; SLA, specific leaf area.

Fig. 5 Effects of needle age on correlations between leaf morphological traits of Pinus koraiensis. Different lowercase letters indicate that there were significant differences between the slopes of different needle ages. The solid lines indicate that the regressions were significant (p < 0.05). LDMC, leaf dry matter content; ND, needle density; NV, needle volume; SLA, specific leaf area.

Table 3 Correlation among leaf traits of Pinus koraiensis (**, p < 0.01)

叶性状 Leaf trait	lg SLA	lg LDMC	lg ND
lgLDMC	-0.84^**
lg ND	-0.76^**	0.69^**
lg NV	-0.45^**	0.43^**	-0.14^**

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