Leaf economics of evergreen and deciduous tree species along an elevational gradient in a subtropical mountain

Bai, Kundong; He, Chengxin; Wan, Xianchong; Jiang, Debing

doi:10.1093/aobpla/plv064

Cited by 46 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…3) in agreement with Reich et al (1999). Under European temperate climate condition, deciduous species are generally characterized by high SLA and hence a faster return of energy investment and transpiration during summer growing season (Bai et al 2015). A recent study by Bochet and García-Fayos (2015) showed that SLA was a relevant trait for indicating plant competitivity and the establishment success on road embankments in semi-arid environment.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Correlating hydrologic reinforcement of vegetated soil with plant traits during establishment of woody perennials

2017

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Background and aims Vegetation stabilizes slopes via root mechanical reinforcement and hydrologic reinforcement induced by transpiration. Most studies have focused on mechanical reinforcement and its correlation with plant biomechanical traits. The correlations however generally ignore the effects of hydrologic reinforcement. This study aims to quantify the hydrologic reinforcement associated with ten woody species and identify correlations with relevant plant traits. Methods Ten species widespread in Europe, which belong to Aquifoliaceae, Betulaceae, Buxaceae, Celastraceae, Fabaceae, Oleaceae and Salicaceae families, were planted in pots of sandy loam soil. Each planted pot was irrigated and then left to transpire. Soil strength, matric suction and plant traits were measured. Results Transpiration-induced suction was linearly correlated with soil penetration resistance for the ten species due to their different transpiration rates i.e. both suction and soil penetration resistance induced by Hazel and Blackthorn (deciduous) were five times greater than those by Holly and European Box (evergreens). Specific leaf area and root length density correlated with hydrologic reinforcement. The root:shoot ratio correlated best with the hydrologic reinforcement. Conclusions Specific leaf area, root length density and root:shoot ratio explained the tenfold differences in hydrologic reinforcement provided by the ten different species.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Correlating hydrologic reinforcement of vegetated soil with plant traits during establishment of woody perennials

2017

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“…Physiological and phenological characteristics, such as leaf water potential and leaf habit, have also been used for the same purpose, but to a lesser extent ( e.g ., Bai et al . ). The lack of interrelation between tree deciduousness and the characteristics examined in this study strengthens the idea that in wet forests, isohydry and anisohydry, as well as evergreeness and deciduousness, do not correlate in the same way as they do in dry forests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Weak relationships between leaf phenology and isohydric and anisohydric behavior in lowland wet tropical forest trees

et al. 2016

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Wet tropical forest trees display a wide range of leaf phenology dynamics. However, the interrelation between deciduousness, water status, and leaf and stem characteristics have been poorly investigated compared with dry forests. We studied wet forest trees to answer the following questions: (1) do water regulation modes (iso/anisohydric behavior) of evergreen species differ from those found in deciduous species? (2) Does leaf water potential (ΨL) influences leaffall and emergence dynamics? (3) Are leaf and stem characteristics consistent across evergreen and deciduous trees? We evaluated vegetative phenology, ΨL, and leaf and stem characteristics of six evergreen and three deciduous species monthly for 2 yr. Species exhibited different leaffall and emergence dynamics, as well as different water regulation modes, independent of their deciduousness. Thus, the relationship between leaf phenology and water regulation behaviors appears to be a species‐specific property rather than a functional group attribute. ΨL had no direct influence on the dynamics of leaffall and/or emergence, indicating that this process is not modulated by water availability alone. Individual groups of evergreen and deciduous species could not be identified using principal component analysis (PCA), but a decoupling was observed in the leaf and stem economics spectra. The lack of an interrelation between deciduousness and iso/anisohydry, as well as the independence of leaf and stem trade‐offs, emphasizes that more systematic measurements of vegetative phenology and ecophysiological characteristics are necessary to advance our knowledge of leaf habit and water regulation behaviors based on the functional traits of wet forest plants.

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“…Even after accounting for phylogeny, broad‐leaved deciduous tree species have a more acquisitive leaf strategy than evergreens and have higher leaf water, N and P content (Bai et al. ). Evergreen trees often have inferior photosynthetic capacity (Baldocchi et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat heterogeneity explains mosaics of evergreen and deciduous trees at local‐scales in a subtropical evergreen broad‐leaved forest

Fang

Shen

Yang

et al. 2016

J Vegetation Science

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Questions Mosaics of evergreen and deciduous trees that are characteristic of evergreen broad‐leaved forests (EBLF) are thought to arise from habitat heterogeneity, but empirical evidence for this is limited. We test this assertion asking: (1) whether environmental heterogeneity explains the distribution of deciduous and evergreen trees; (2) which are the most important environmental variables; and (3) does their importance change with scale? Location Tiantong National Forest Park, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China. Methods We used data from a 20‐ha individual‐mapped EBLF in spatial point‐pattern analyses testing the scale of aggregation within, and segregation between, the two life forms. We used a heterogeneous Poisson process model to remove the effects of environmental heterogeneity, predicting segregation would disappear if the mosaic was due to habitat heterogeneity alone. Finally, we tested the relative importance of theoretically important environmental variables using multivariate regression trees at three spatial scales (10, 20 and 50 m grid cells). Results We found evergreen and deciduous trees were aggregated at scales below 125 m and 60 m, respectively, and mutually exclusive at scales <120 m. Evidence of any spatial segregation between the life forms was removed at all scales after controlling for environmental heterogeneity. Only soil phosphorus concentrations contributed to spatial patterns at all scales, with values >0.27–0.30 g·kg−1 favouring deciduous species. Conclusions Our study is consistent with habitat heterogeneity creating the observed mosaics of evergreen and deciduous tree species, but micro‐habitat heterogeneity contributed even at scales <20 m. Soil phosphorus availability appears to be the major environmental variable maintaining these mosaic patterns at hillslope scales in EBLF.

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Leaf economics of evergreen and deciduous tree species along an elevational gradient in a subtropical mountain

Cited by 46 publications

References 69 publications

Correlating hydrologic reinforcement of vegetated soil with plant traits during establishment of woody perennials

Correlating hydrologic reinforcement of vegetated soil with plant traits during establishment of woody perennials

Weak relationships between leaf phenology and isohydric and anisohydric behavior in lowland wet tropical forest trees

Habitat heterogeneity explains mosaics of evergreen and deciduous trees at local‐scales in a subtropical evergreen broad‐leaved forest

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