Cargando…

Effects of Simulated Nitrogen Deposition and Micro-Environment on the Functional Traits of Two Rare and Endangered Fern Species in a Subtropical Forest

Although the effects of N deposition on forest plants have been widely reported, few studies have focused on rare and endangered fern species (REFs). Information is also lacking on the effects of micro-environments on REFs. We investigated the effects of N addition (canopy and understory N addition,...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ji, Lingbo, Wei, Liping, Zhang, Lingling, Li, Yuanqiu, Tian, Yang, Liu, Ke, Ren, Hai
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9740810/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36501359
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants11233320
_version_ 1784848158648434688
author Ji, Lingbo
Wei, Liping
Zhang, Lingling
Li, Yuanqiu
Tian, Yang
Liu, Ke
Ren, Hai
author_facet Ji, Lingbo
Wei, Liping
Zhang, Lingling
Li, Yuanqiu
Tian, Yang
Liu, Ke
Ren, Hai
author_sort Ji, Lingbo
collection PubMed
description Although the effects of N deposition on forest plants have been widely reported, few studies have focused on rare and endangered fern species (REFs). Information is also lacking on the effects of micro-environments on REFs. We investigated the effects of N addition (canopy and understory N addition, CAN, and UAN) and micro-environments (soil and canopy conditions) on the functional traits (growth, defense, and reproduction; 19 traits in total) of two REFs—Alsophila podophylla and Cibotium baromet—in a subtropical forest in South China. We found that, compared to controls, CAN or UAN decreased the growth traits (e.g., plant height, H) of C. baromet, increased its defense traits (e.g., leaf organic acid concentrations, OA), delayed its reproductive event (all-spore release date), and prolonged its reproductive duration. In contrast, A. podophylla showed increased growth traits (e.g., H), decreased defense traits (e.g., OA), and advanced reproductive events (e.g., the all-spore emergence date) under CAN or UAN. Meanwhile, the negative effects on the C. baromet growth traits and A. podophylla defense traits were stronger for CAN than for UAN. In addition, the soil chemical properties always explained more of the variations in the growth and reproductive traits of the two REFs than the N addition. Our study indicates that, under simulated N deposition, C. baromet increases its investment in defense, whereas A. podophylla increases its investment in growth and reproduction; this may cause an increasing A. podophylla population and decreasing C. baromet population in subtropical forests. Our study also highlights the importance of considering micro-environments and the N-addition approach when predicting N deposition impact on subtropical forest REFs.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9740810
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97408102022-12-11 Effects of Simulated Nitrogen Deposition and Micro-Environment on the Functional Traits of Two Rare and Endangered Fern Species in a Subtropical Forest Ji, Lingbo Wei, Liping Zhang, Lingling Li, Yuanqiu Tian, Yang Liu, Ke Ren, Hai Plants (Basel) Article Although the effects of N deposition on forest plants have been widely reported, few studies have focused on rare and endangered fern species (REFs). Information is also lacking on the effects of micro-environments on REFs. We investigated the effects of N addition (canopy and understory N addition, CAN, and UAN) and micro-environments (soil and canopy conditions) on the functional traits (growth, defense, and reproduction; 19 traits in total) of two REFs—Alsophila podophylla and Cibotium baromet—in a subtropical forest in South China. We found that, compared to controls, CAN or UAN decreased the growth traits (e.g., plant height, H) of C. baromet, increased its defense traits (e.g., leaf organic acid concentrations, OA), delayed its reproductive event (all-spore release date), and prolonged its reproductive duration. In contrast, A. podophylla showed increased growth traits (e.g., H), decreased defense traits (e.g., OA), and advanced reproductive events (e.g., the all-spore emergence date) under CAN or UAN. Meanwhile, the negative effects on the C. baromet growth traits and A. podophylla defense traits were stronger for CAN than for UAN. In addition, the soil chemical properties always explained more of the variations in the growth and reproductive traits of the two REFs than the N addition. Our study indicates that, under simulated N deposition, C. baromet increases its investment in defense, whereas A. podophylla increases its investment in growth and reproduction; this may cause an increasing A. podophylla population and decreasing C. baromet population in subtropical forests. Our study also highlights the importance of considering micro-environments and the N-addition approach when predicting N deposition impact on subtropical forest REFs. MDPI 2022-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9740810/ /pubmed/36501359 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants11233320 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ji, Lingbo
Wei, Liping
Zhang, Lingling
Li, Yuanqiu
Tian, Yang
Liu, Ke
Ren, Hai
Effects of Simulated Nitrogen Deposition and Micro-Environment on the Functional Traits of Two Rare and Endangered Fern Species in a Subtropical Forest
title Effects of Simulated Nitrogen Deposition and Micro-Environment on the Functional Traits of Two Rare and Endangered Fern Species in a Subtropical Forest
title_full Effects of Simulated Nitrogen Deposition and Micro-Environment on the Functional Traits of Two Rare and Endangered Fern Species in a Subtropical Forest
title_fullStr Effects of Simulated Nitrogen Deposition and Micro-Environment on the Functional Traits of Two Rare and Endangered Fern Species in a Subtropical Forest
title_full_unstemmed Effects of Simulated Nitrogen Deposition and Micro-Environment on the Functional Traits of Two Rare and Endangered Fern Species in a Subtropical Forest
title_short Effects of Simulated Nitrogen Deposition and Micro-Environment on the Functional Traits of Two Rare and Endangered Fern Species in a Subtropical Forest
title_sort effects of simulated nitrogen deposition and micro-environment on the functional traits of two rare and endangered fern species in a subtropical forest
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9740810/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36501359
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants11233320
work_keys_str_mv AT jilingbo effectsofsimulatednitrogendepositionandmicroenvironmentonthefunctionaltraitsoftworareandendangeredfernspeciesinasubtropicalforest
AT weiliping effectsofsimulatednitrogendepositionandmicroenvironmentonthefunctionaltraitsoftworareandendangeredfernspeciesinasubtropicalforest
AT zhanglingling effectsofsimulatednitrogendepositionandmicroenvironmentonthefunctionaltraitsoftworareandendangeredfernspeciesinasubtropicalforest
AT liyuanqiu effectsofsimulatednitrogendepositionandmicroenvironmentonthefunctionaltraitsoftworareandendangeredfernspeciesinasubtropicalforest
AT tianyang effectsofsimulatednitrogendepositionandmicroenvironmentonthefunctionaltraitsoftworareandendangeredfernspeciesinasubtropicalforest
AT liuke effectsofsimulatednitrogendepositionandmicroenvironmentonthefunctionaltraitsoftworareandendangeredfernspeciesinasubtropicalforest
AT renhai effectsofsimulatednitrogendepositionandmicroenvironmentonthefunctionaltraitsoftworareandendangeredfernspeciesinasubtropicalforest