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Biomass allocation and seasonal non-structural carbohydrate dynamics do not explain the success of tall forbs in short alpine grassland

The majority of alpine plants are of small stature. Through their small size alpine plants are decoupled from the free atmospheric circulation and accumulate solar heat. However, a few alpine species do not follow that “rule” and protrude with their aboveground structures from the microclimatic shel...

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Autores principales: Hiltbrunner, Erika, Arnaiz, Jonas, Körner, Christian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8591020/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34047842
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04950-7
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author Hiltbrunner, Erika
Arnaiz, Jonas
Körner, Christian
author_facet Hiltbrunner, Erika
Arnaiz, Jonas
Körner, Christian
author_sort Hiltbrunner, Erika
collection PubMed
description The majority of alpine plants are of small stature. Through their small size alpine plants are decoupled from the free atmospheric circulation and accumulate solar heat. However, a few alpine species do not follow that “rule” and protrude with their aboveground structures from the microclimatic shelter of the main canopy boundary layer. We aim at explaining the phenomenon of being tall by exploring the biomass production and carbon relations of four pairs of small and tall phylogenetically related taxa in alpine grassland. We compared species and stature-specific biomass allocation, shifts in non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations in different tissues throughout the season, and we used (13)C labels to track carbon transfer from leaves to belowground structures. Small and tall herbs did not differ in their above- to belowground biomass allocation. The NSC composition (starch, fructan, simple sugars) and allocation did not show a stature-specific pattern, except for higher concentrations of simple sugars in tall species during their extended shoot growth. In relative terms, tall species had higher NSC pools in rhizomes, whereas small species had higher NSC pools in roots. Our findings do not place tall alpine forbs in an exceptional category in terms of biomass allocation and carbohydrate storage. The tall versus small stature of the examined herbs does not seem to be associated with specific adjustments in carbon relations. (13)C pulse labelling revealed early C autonomy in young, unfolding leaves of the tall species, which are thus independent of the carbon reserves in the massive belowground organs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00442-021-04950-7.
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spelling pubmed-85910202021-11-23 Biomass allocation and seasonal non-structural carbohydrate dynamics do not explain the success of tall forbs in short alpine grassland Hiltbrunner, Erika Arnaiz, Jonas Körner, Christian Oecologia Special Issue: In Honor of Russell K. Monson The majority of alpine plants are of small stature. Through their small size alpine plants are decoupled from the free atmospheric circulation and accumulate solar heat. However, a few alpine species do not follow that “rule” and protrude with their aboveground structures from the microclimatic shelter of the main canopy boundary layer. We aim at explaining the phenomenon of being tall by exploring the biomass production and carbon relations of four pairs of small and tall phylogenetically related taxa in alpine grassland. We compared species and stature-specific biomass allocation, shifts in non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations in different tissues throughout the season, and we used (13)C labels to track carbon transfer from leaves to belowground structures. Small and tall herbs did not differ in their above- to belowground biomass allocation. The NSC composition (starch, fructan, simple sugars) and allocation did not show a stature-specific pattern, except for higher concentrations of simple sugars in tall species during their extended shoot growth. In relative terms, tall species had higher NSC pools in rhizomes, whereas small species had higher NSC pools in roots. Our findings do not place tall alpine forbs in an exceptional category in terms of biomass allocation and carbohydrate storage. The tall versus small stature of the examined herbs does not seem to be associated with specific adjustments in carbon relations. (13)C pulse labelling revealed early C autonomy in young, unfolding leaves of the tall species, which are thus independent of the carbon reserves in the massive belowground organs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00442-021-04950-7. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-05-28 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8591020/ /pubmed/34047842 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04950-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Special Issue: In Honor of Russell K. Monson
Hiltbrunner, Erika
Arnaiz, Jonas
Körner, Christian
Biomass allocation and seasonal non-structural carbohydrate dynamics do not explain the success of tall forbs in short alpine grassland
title Biomass allocation and seasonal non-structural carbohydrate dynamics do not explain the success of tall forbs in short alpine grassland
title_full Biomass allocation and seasonal non-structural carbohydrate dynamics do not explain the success of tall forbs in short alpine grassland
title_fullStr Biomass allocation and seasonal non-structural carbohydrate dynamics do not explain the success of tall forbs in short alpine grassland
title_full_unstemmed Biomass allocation and seasonal non-structural carbohydrate dynamics do not explain the success of tall forbs in short alpine grassland
title_short Biomass allocation and seasonal non-structural carbohydrate dynamics do not explain the success of tall forbs in short alpine grassland
title_sort biomass allocation and seasonal non-structural carbohydrate dynamics do not explain the success of tall forbs in short alpine grassland
topic Special Issue: In Honor of Russell K. Monson
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8591020/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34047842
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04950-7
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