A test of the generality of leaf trait relationships on the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Summary• Leaf mass per area (LMA), nitrogen concentration (on mass and area bases, N mass and N area , respectively), photosynthetic capacity ( A mass and A area ) and photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE) are key foliar traits, but few data are available from cold, high-altitude environments.• Here, we systematically measured these leaf traits in 74 species at 49 research sites on the Tibetan Plateau to examine how these traits, measured near the extremes of plant tolerance, compare with global patterns.• Overall, Tibetan species had higher leaf nitrogen concentrations and photosynthetic capacities compared with a global dataset, but they had a slightly lower A mass at a given N mass . These leaf trait relationships were consistent with those reported from the global dataset, with slopes of the standardized major axes A mass -LMA, N mass -LMA and A mass -N mass identical to those from the global dataset. Climate only weakly modulated leaf traits.• Our data indicate that covarying sets of leaf traits are consistent across environments and biogeographic regions. Our results demonstrate functional convergence of leaf trait relationships in an extreme environment.

Taxonomic identity, phylogeny, climate and soil fertility as drivers of leaf traits across Chinese grassland biomes

“…In line with previous results (He et al 2006b;Wright et al 2005a), herbs had lower LMA and higher A mass and P mass than grasses and woody species, and legumes had higher N area and N mass than nonlegumes (Table 3).…”

“…The climatic and soil properties of the three regions are presented in Table 1. The leaf trait data from the Tibetan Plateau (He et al 2006b), data on C:N:P stoichiometry (He et al 2006a;He et al 2008), and bivariate relationships between leaf productivity (mass-based photosynthetic rate, A mass , N and P concentrations, photosynthetic N-use efficiency, PNUE) and persistence (leaf mass per area, LMA) (He et al 2009) were presented previously.…”

“…Descriptions of the sampling protocol and leaf trait measurements were detailed elsewhere (He et al 2008;He et al 2006b). In brief, in-situ photosynthetic rates of current season leaves were measured in the mornings of clear days using red-blue light sources and CO 2 mixers (LI-6400, Li-Cor Inc., Lincoln, NE, USA).…”

Soil moisture, species composition interact to regulate CO2 and CH4 fluxes in dry meadows on the Tibetan Plateau

“…However, no significant differences in GEP were observed (Fig. 2e, Table 2), suggesting higher CO 2 uptake rates per dry mass of forb sites, which agree with previous reports that forbs have greater photosynthetic capacity than sedges (He et al, 2006). Further, interaction effects of species composition and PAR on GEP were detected (F = 8.06, P = 0.007; Table 4, Figs.…”

Leaf‐trait relationships of Quercus liaotungensis along an altitudinal gradient in Dongling Mountain, Beijing

“…Although these leaf traits vary greatly among species, often by orders of magnitude, the similar patterns of leaf-trait relationships had been found within and across plant species (Wright et al 2004a;He et al 2006), biomes and functional groups (Reich et al 1998(Reich et al , 1999, even at global scale (Reich et al 1997;Reich and Oleksyn 2004;Wright et al 2004bWright et al , 2005aWright et al , 2005b. For example, SLA, N mass , and photosynthetic capacity are positively correlated with each other.…”