Effects of sex and soil water chemistry on leaf morphology and physiology of Myrica gale var. tomentosa

Plants respond to environmental stressors, such as an oligotrophic environments, by altering the morphological and physiological functions of their leaves. Sex affects these functions because of the asymmetric cost of reproduction in dioecious plants. We compared the leaf mass per leaf area (LMA), ratio of intercellular air space in leaf mesophyll tissue (mesophyll porosity), palisade thickness, and carbon isotope ratio (δ(13)C) of leaves of the dioecious shrub Myrica gale based on sex and gradients of soil water chemistry across habitats in the field. The PCA showed that the first three principal components accounted for 84.5% of the variation. PC1 to PC3 were associated with the origin of soil water, nitrogen status of habitats, and sea–salt contributions, respectively. LMA varied from 5.22 to 7.13 μg/cm(2), and it was positively related to PC2 and negatively related to PC3, but not to PC1 or sex, suggesting that LMA was low under poor nitrogen conditions and varied with salinity. Mesophyll porosity values were over 50% for all habitats. Mesophyll porosity was positively affected by PC3 and smaller in females than in males. This suggests that M. gale exhibits differences in mesophyll anatomy according to sex. Palisade thickness ranged from 0.466 to 0.559 mm/mm. The leaves of females had thinner palisade layers per mesophyll layer than those of males; however, the habitat did not affect the thickness of the palisade layer per mesophyll layer. The δ(13)C values of leaves varied from −32.14 to −30.51 ‰. We found that δ(13)C values were positively related to PC2 but not to PC1, PC3, and sex. Under poor nitrogen conditions, the δ(13)C of M. gale leaves decreased, suggesting that nutrient deficiency would decrease more under the long-term averaged ratio of photosynthesis than stomatal conductance, leading to low water use efficiency.