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Divergent responses of plant functional traits and biomass allocation to slope aspects in four perennial herbs of the alpine meadow ecosystem

Slope aspect can cause environmental heterogeneity over relatively short distances, which in turn affects plant distribution, community structure, and ecosystem function. However, the response and adaptation strategies of plants to slope aspects via regulating their physiological and morphological p...

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Autores principales: Zhou, Tianyang, Du, Wentao, Wang, Jinniu, Zhang, Lin, Gao, Jing, Shi, Ning, Wang, Lihua, Wu, Yan, Tian, Binghui
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10016094/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36938032
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1092821
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author Zhou, Tianyang
Du, Wentao
Wang, Jinniu
Zhang, Lin
Gao, Jing
Shi, Ning
Wang, Lihua
Wu, Yan
Tian, Binghui
author_facet Zhou, Tianyang
Du, Wentao
Wang, Jinniu
Zhang, Lin
Gao, Jing
Shi, Ning
Wang, Lihua
Wu, Yan
Tian, Binghui
author_sort Zhou, Tianyang
collection PubMed
description Slope aspect can cause environmental heterogeneity over relatively short distances, which in turn affects plant distribution, community structure, and ecosystem function. However, the response and adaptation strategies of plants to slope aspects via regulating their physiological and morphological properties still remain poorly understood, especially in alpine ecosystems. Here, we selected four common species, including Bistorta macrophylla, Bistorta vivipara, Cremanthodium discoideum, and Deschampsia littoralis, to test how biomass allocation and functional traits of height, individual leaf area, individual leaf mass, and specific leaf area (SLA) respond to variation in slope aspect in the Minshan Mountain, eastern Tibetan Plateau. We found that the slope aspect affected SLA and stem, flower mass fraction with higher values at southwest slope aspect, which is potentially related to light environment. The low-temperature environment caused by the slope aspect facilitates the accumulation of root biomass especially at the northeast slope aspect. Cremanthodium discoideum and D. littoralis invested more in belowground biomass in southeast and southwest slope aspects, although a large number of significant isometric allocations were found in B. macrophylla and B. vivipara. Finally, we found that both biotic and abiotic factors are responsible for the variation in total biomass with contrasting effects across different species. These results suggest that slope aspect, as an important topographic variable, strongly influences plant survival, growth, and propagation. Therefore, habitat heterogeneity stemming from topographic factors (slope aspect) can prevent biotic homogenization and thus contribute to the improvement of diverse ecosystem functioning.
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spelling pubmed-100160942023-03-16 Divergent responses of plant functional traits and biomass allocation to slope aspects in four perennial herbs of the alpine meadow ecosystem Zhou, Tianyang Du, Wentao Wang, Jinniu Zhang, Lin Gao, Jing Shi, Ning Wang, Lihua Wu, Yan Tian, Binghui Front Plant Sci Plant Science Slope aspect can cause environmental heterogeneity over relatively short distances, which in turn affects plant distribution, community structure, and ecosystem function. However, the response and adaptation strategies of plants to slope aspects via regulating their physiological and morphological properties still remain poorly understood, especially in alpine ecosystems. Here, we selected four common species, including Bistorta macrophylla, Bistorta vivipara, Cremanthodium discoideum, and Deschampsia littoralis, to test how biomass allocation and functional traits of height, individual leaf area, individual leaf mass, and specific leaf area (SLA) respond to variation in slope aspect in the Minshan Mountain, eastern Tibetan Plateau. We found that the slope aspect affected SLA and stem, flower mass fraction with higher values at southwest slope aspect, which is potentially related to light environment. The low-temperature environment caused by the slope aspect facilitates the accumulation of root biomass especially at the northeast slope aspect. Cremanthodium discoideum and D. littoralis invested more in belowground biomass in southeast and southwest slope aspects, although a large number of significant isometric allocations were found in B. macrophylla and B. vivipara. Finally, we found that both biotic and abiotic factors are responsible for the variation in total biomass with contrasting effects across different species. These results suggest that slope aspect, as an important topographic variable, strongly influences plant survival, growth, and propagation. Therefore, habitat heterogeneity stemming from topographic factors (slope aspect) can prevent biotic homogenization and thus contribute to the improvement of diverse ecosystem functioning. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-01 /pmc/articles/PMC10016094/ /pubmed/36938032 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1092821 Text en Copyright © 2023 Zhou, Du, Wang, Zhang, Gao, Shi, Wang, Wu and Tian https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Plant Science
Zhou, Tianyang
Du, Wentao
Wang, Jinniu
Zhang, Lin
Gao, Jing
Shi, Ning
Wang, Lihua
Wu, Yan
Tian, Binghui
Divergent responses of plant functional traits and biomass allocation to slope aspects in four perennial herbs of the alpine meadow ecosystem
title Divergent responses of plant functional traits and biomass allocation to slope aspects in four perennial herbs of the alpine meadow ecosystem
title_full Divergent responses of plant functional traits and biomass allocation to slope aspects in four perennial herbs of the alpine meadow ecosystem
title_fullStr Divergent responses of plant functional traits and biomass allocation to slope aspects in four perennial herbs of the alpine meadow ecosystem
title_full_unstemmed Divergent responses of plant functional traits and biomass allocation to slope aspects in four perennial herbs of the alpine meadow ecosystem
title_short Divergent responses of plant functional traits and biomass allocation to slope aspects in four perennial herbs of the alpine meadow ecosystem
title_sort divergent responses of plant functional traits and biomass allocation to slope aspects in four perennial herbs of the alpine meadow ecosystem
topic Plant Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10016094/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36938032
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1092821
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