Variation in intraspecific functional traits is one of the important components of community variation, and has drawn the attention of researchers. Studying the variation of traits under different plant sizes and habitats helps to reveal the adaptation mechanism of plants. We explored intraspecific trait variations by focusing on the widespread species Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata in a 25 ha warm, temperate, deciduous broadleaved forest plot in the Qinling Mountains. We measured nine morphological and chemical traits for 90 individuals from different plant sizes and habitats. In addition, we evaluated the relative impact of plant size and environment on Q. aliena var. acuteserrata with multiple regression models. We found that plant size explained the most variance of traits. As plant size increased, the trees tended to have lower leaf nitrogen concentrations, lower leaf phosphorus concentrations, higher leaf carbon concentrations, higher leaf dry matter content (LDMC), and thinner leaves, indicating the transformation from rapid resource acquisition strategy to conservative resource-use strategy. Habitats could only explain the changes in chemical traits. Leaf carbon concentration was principally affected by topographical factors and was significant different among habitats. Leaf nitrogen concentration and LPC were significantly limited by soil N and P. In conclusion, shifts in size-dependent traits met the growth requirements of Q. aliena var. acutiserrata; the high tolerance traits associated with this tree species might elucidate important mechanisms for coping with changing environments.
Previous studies have focused on the functional traits of trees, while undergrowth shrubs have not received the same attention. We collected 97 shrubs from 6 habitats in 3 diameter classes to measure the functional traits of Lonicera fragrantissima var. lancifolia, which is one of the dominant species in the shrub layer of the Qinling Huangguan plot. We found that leaf thickness (LT) decreased with an increase in diameter classes. Other functional traits did not change significantly with the diameter classes. Most of the functional traits changed with the habitats, which may be influenced by topography and soil. On the whole, Lonicera fragrantissima var. lancifolia showed low variation, which indicates that its growth was stable and good. The relationships between functional traits within species was in accordance with the leaf economic spectrum. The positive correlation between soil total nitrogen (STN) and C:N verified the “nutrition luxury hypothesis”.
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