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Plant Nutrient Contents Rather Than Physical Traits Are Coordinated Between Leaves and Roots in a Desert Shrubland
Although leaf economics spectrum (LES) has been extensively tested with regional and global datasets, the correlation among functional traits of desert plants remains largely unclear. Moreover, examinations on whether and how leaf and root traits are coordinated have yielded mixed results. We invest...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8576145/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34764966 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.734775 |
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author | Jiang, Xiaoyan Jia, Xin Gao, Shengjie Jiang, Yan Wei, Ningning Han, Cong Zha, Tianshan Liu, Peng Tian, Yun Qin, Shugao |
author_facet | Jiang, Xiaoyan Jia, Xin Gao, Shengjie Jiang, Yan Wei, Ningning Han, Cong Zha, Tianshan Liu, Peng Tian, Yun Qin, Shugao |
author_sort | Jiang, Xiaoyan |
collection | PubMed |
description | Although leaf economics spectrum (LES) has been extensively tested with regional and global datasets, the correlation among functional traits of desert plants remains largely unclear. Moreover, examinations on whether and how leaf and root traits are coordinated have yielded mixed results. We investigated variations in leaf and fine-root traits across 48 species in a desert community of northern China to test the hypotheses that (1) the leaf-trait syndrome of plant species in desert shrublands follows the predictions of the global LES, and is paralleled by a similar root-trait syndrome, (2) functional traits related to nutrient contents and resource uptake are tightly coordinated between leaves and fine roots in desert ecosystems where plant growth is limited primarily by dry and nutrient-poor conditions, and (3) traits as well as their relationships vary among functional groups. Our results partially supported the LES theory. Specific leaf area (SLA) was correlated with leaf tissue density, phosphorus content, and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, but not with leaf nitrogen content. Specific root length (SRL) was not correlated with other fine-root traits, and fine-root traits were largely independent of each other. Therefore, fine-root traits did not mirror the leaf-trait syndrome. Fine-root nitrogen and phosphorus contents, nitrogen-to-phosphorous ratio, and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio all increased with analogous leaf traits, whereas SRL was not correlated with SLA. After phylogenetic effects were considered, nutrient contents and their ratios still displayed stronger coordination between leaves and fine roots than did SRL and SLA. The overall pattern of trait variations and relationships suggested differentiation among functional groups. Our results suggest that despite the absence of a root-trait syndrome, fine-root functions in the studied desert community were probably coordinated with leaf functions with respect to nutrient allocation and use. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8576145 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85761452021-11-10 Plant Nutrient Contents Rather Than Physical Traits Are Coordinated Between Leaves and Roots in a Desert Shrubland Jiang, Xiaoyan Jia, Xin Gao, Shengjie Jiang, Yan Wei, Ningning Han, Cong Zha, Tianshan Liu, Peng Tian, Yun Qin, Shugao Front Plant Sci Plant Science Although leaf economics spectrum (LES) has been extensively tested with regional and global datasets, the correlation among functional traits of desert plants remains largely unclear. Moreover, examinations on whether and how leaf and root traits are coordinated have yielded mixed results. We investigated variations in leaf and fine-root traits across 48 species in a desert community of northern China to test the hypotheses that (1) the leaf-trait syndrome of plant species in desert shrublands follows the predictions of the global LES, and is paralleled by a similar root-trait syndrome, (2) functional traits related to nutrient contents and resource uptake are tightly coordinated between leaves and fine roots in desert ecosystems where plant growth is limited primarily by dry and nutrient-poor conditions, and (3) traits as well as their relationships vary among functional groups. Our results partially supported the LES theory. Specific leaf area (SLA) was correlated with leaf tissue density, phosphorus content, and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, but not with leaf nitrogen content. Specific root length (SRL) was not correlated with other fine-root traits, and fine-root traits were largely independent of each other. Therefore, fine-root traits did not mirror the leaf-trait syndrome. Fine-root nitrogen and phosphorus contents, nitrogen-to-phosphorous ratio, and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio all increased with analogous leaf traits, whereas SRL was not correlated with SLA. After phylogenetic effects were considered, nutrient contents and their ratios still displayed stronger coordination between leaves and fine roots than did SRL and SLA. The overall pattern of trait variations and relationships suggested differentiation among functional groups. Our results suggest that despite the absence of a root-trait syndrome, fine-root functions in the studied desert community were probably coordinated with leaf functions with respect to nutrient allocation and use. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8576145/ /pubmed/34764966 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.734775 Text en Copyright © 2021 Jiang, Jia, Gao, Jiang, Wei, Han, Zha, Liu, Tian and Qin. 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 Jiang, Xiaoyan Jia, Xin Gao, Shengjie Jiang, Yan Wei, Ningning Han, Cong Zha, Tianshan Liu, Peng Tian, Yun Qin, Shugao Plant Nutrient Contents Rather Than Physical Traits Are Coordinated Between Leaves and Roots in a Desert Shrubland |
title | Plant Nutrient Contents Rather Than Physical Traits Are Coordinated Between Leaves and Roots in a Desert Shrubland |
title_full | Plant Nutrient Contents Rather Than Physical Traits Are Coordinated Between Leaves and Roots in a Desert Shrubland |
title_fullStr | Plant Nutrient Contents Rather Than Physical Traits Are Coordinated Between Leaves and Roots in a Desert Shrubland |
title_full_unstemmed | Plant Nutrient Contents Rather Than Physical Traits Are Coordinated Between Leaves and Roots in a Desert Shrubland |
title_short | Plant Nutrient Contents Rather Than Physical Traits Are Coordinated Between Leaves and Roots in a Desert Shrubland |
title_sort | plant nutrient contents rather than physical traits are coordinated between leaves and roots in a desert shrubland |
topic | Plant Science |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8576145/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34764966 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.734775 |
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