Coordination of leaf hydraulic and economic traits in Cinnamomum camphora under impervious pavement

BACKGROUND: Paved urban environments can pose great threats to the physiological functioning and ecological services of street trees. In this context, assessment of leaf phenotypic plasticity is crucial for understanding the ecological strategy of tree species under impervious pavements. RESULTS: In this study, we measured a set of leaf economic traits, hydraulic traits of Cinnamomum camphora, and surrounding environmental factors in a street site (the soil was covered by the impervious pavement) and a park site (the soil was covered by grass) in Hefei, eastern China. Compared with the park site, trees in the street site had higher stomatal length (SL), leaf thickness (LT), maximum photochemical quantum yield of photosystem II (Y(II)), and lower stomatal density (SD), specific leaf area (SLA), the leaf water potential at 50% loss of hydraulic conductance (P(50)), and leaf turgor loss point (TLP). Redundancy analysis showed that air relative humidity and volumetric soil water content caused these traits to be altered. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that C. camphora adapted to the street pavement environment through the coordination of leaf economic and leaf hydraulic traits, and adopted the slow investment return type in the leaf economic spectrum and high drought resistance to meet its actual physiological needs. This finding provides a new perspective for understanding the physiological strategies of street trees to adapt to urban pavement environments. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-022-03740-4.