Coordinated pattern of multi-element variability in leaves and roots across Chinese forest biomes
By N. Zhao, Guirui Yu, Nianpeng He, Qiufeng Wang, Dali Guo, Xinyu Zhang, Ruili Wang, Zhiwei Xu, C. Jiao, Nan Li and 1 more. 2016
114 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Aim The elemental composition of plants is of fundamental importance for plant physiology and biogeochemical cycling. Knowledge about how the pattern of multi-element variability is coordinated between above- and below-ground organs remains limited. Here, we quantify multi-element variability in the leaves and roots of terrestrial plants, in addition to trying to understand its taxonomic and environmental regulation at large scales. Location China. Methods Sixteen elements in the leaves and fine roots of 792 plant species across nine forests located along the north–south transect of eastern China were measured. General linear mixed models were used to partition taxonomic and environmental variation. Canonical discriminant analyses were conducted to identify elements with the highest discriminatory power for different plant orders. Results Elemental composition differed significantly between the leaves and roots, with the roots containing higher concentrations of trace metal elements (aluminium, iron, sodium, zinc, copper, lead, nickel and cobalt). A coordinated pattern of multi-element variability and similar taxonomic regulation was observed between the leaves and roots of terrestrial plants. That is, elements with higher internal concentrations were less variable, with most of the variability being attributed to taxonomic effects rather than the environment. Main conclusions Taxonomic and environmental regulation differed for different elements. Compared with microelements, macroelements exhibited a narrow range of internal concentrations, less environmental control and stronger taxonomic conservatism. The coordinated pattern of multi-element variability and similar taxonomic effects in the leaves and roots implies that above- and below-ground ecological processes are tightly linked.
Subfields: Analytical Chemistry, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Pollution
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/da8af24762f0891aff887bfa76dee210bde21c7a
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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
In Pollution
Citations in the corpus
- Variations and determinants of carbon content in plants: a global synthesis (2017, unknown): “(2009) and other studies about plant nutrient stoichiometry at global scales (Han et al., 2011; Zhao et al., 2016; Tian et al., 2017).”
- Factors Influencing Leaf Chlorophyll Content in Natural Forests at the Biome Scale (2018, methodology): “…randomly collected from 30 to 50 points using a soil sampler (6-cm diameter) in each plot and Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | www.frontiersin.org 2 June 2018 | Volume 6 | Article 64 were combined to form one composite sample in each plot (Tian et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2016; Li et al., 2018).”
- Variation of stomatal traits from cold-temperate to tropical forests and association with water use efficiency (2018, unknown): “for leaf mass per area, foliar nutrient concentration, seed mass and stem hydraulic conductance (Choat, Sack, & Holbrook, 2007; Wright, Reich, & Westoby, 2001; Zhao et al., 2016).”
- Variation in leaf chlorophyll concentration from tropical to cold-temperate forests: Association with gross primary productivity (2018, methodology): “Leaf samples were collected from branches in the upper part of trees by climbing or using pole pruners and placed in a plastic self-sealing bag (Tian et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2016).”
- Soil organic matter availability and climate drive latitudinal patterns in bacterial diversity from tropical to cold temperate forests (2018, methodology): “The north–south transect of eastern China (NSTEC) used in this study includes a range of forest types from cold temperate to tropical (Zhao et al., 2016).”