Perspectives and challenges in plant traits: From organs to communities

Nianpeng, 何念鹏 He; Congcong, 刘聪聪 Liu; Jiahui, 张佳慧 Zhang; Li, 徐丽 Xu; Guirui, 于贵瑞 Yu

doi:10.5846/stxb201710241900

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Therefore, it is necessary to regard plants composed of multiple organs and use multidimensional methods to evaluate plant adaptation and response across lineages, life forms, and environments (N. P. He et al., 2020). Moreover, by studying the variation of plant functional traits and their response to environmental factors from organs to the community level, we can better explore the relationships between the structure and function of natural ecosystems at the regional scale and their adaptation to global changes (N. P. He, Zhang, Xu, & Yu, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeographic Patterns of Sulfur in the Vegetation of the Tibetan Plateau

Zhao

Xiao

et al. 2023

JGR Biogeosciences

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Sulfur (S) plays an important role in plant growth and development. However, due to climatic conditions and limited data availability, the variation and allocation of S are largely unknown at regional or global scales. In this study, we systematically evaluated the S distribution patterns and storage in vegetation on the Tibetan Plateau for the first time, based on consistent field‐measured data of 2,040 plant communities. The mean S contents of leaves, branches, trunks, and roots were 1.68, 0.40, 0.19, and 1.45 g kg−1, respectively; corresponding to S densities of 0.40 × 10−2 (9.57%), 1.18 × 10−2 (28.38%), 1.37 × 10−2 (32.90%) and 1.21 × 10−2 t hm−2 (29.15%), respectively. The mean S densities for forests (5.59 ± 0.26 × 10−2 t hm−2) were higher than that of shrublands (4.54 ± 0.51 × 10−2 t hm−2), grasslands (1.03 ± 0.07 × 10−2 t hm−2), and deserts (1.32 ± 0.28 × 10−2 t hm−2). The S density was generally lower in the northwest and higher in the southeast of the Tibetan Plateau and had divergent allocation patterns between different plant organs and vegetation types. Furthermore, we found that S in leaves and roots was more strongly influenced by environmental factors and was particularly sensitive to radiation and atmospheric pressure. Moreover, the total S storage in the vegetation of the Tibetan Plateau was estimated to be 337.32 × 104 t, with 114.32 × 104 (33.89%), 92.36 × 104 (27.38%), 128.77 × 104 (38.17%), and 1.86 × 104 t (0.55%) in the forests, shrublands, grasslands, and deserts, respectively. Our study clarified the S densities of different plant organs and ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau and compiled 1 × 1 km vegetation S density data sets, which could help determine the key parameters for regional S cycle models in the future.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeographic Patterns of Sulfur in the Vegetation of the Tibetan Plateau

Zhao

Xiao

et al. 2023

JGR Biogeosciences

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“…Exploring the trait-trait correlations using PTN can improve our understanding of physiological and ecological rules regulating trait interactions among organs and plant growth under environmental stress (He et al, 2018;Kleyer et al, 2019;Rao et al, 2022). A network based on a dataset of 23 traits from 2530 individuals of 126 plant species from 381 plots in Northwest Europe has revealed that biomass allocation traits and stem specific length are hub traits in herbaceous perennial plants (Kleyer et al, 2019).…”

Section: Interannual Differences In Plant Traits and The Influencing ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Twig traits can be comprehensively characterized by multiple indicators, such as morphological or structural (e.g., leaf size, specific leaf area, and biomass allocation), physiological (e.g., photosynthesis, respiration, and enzyme activity), and chemical (e.g., element and compound contents) indicators, which are the integrative reflection of plant growth response and environmental adaptation (Yang et al, 2010;Liu and Ma, 2015;Li et al, 2017). The trade-offs between stem and leaf traits and among different functional traits are the results of plants' adaptation to environmental heterogeneity (He et al, 2018;He et al, 2019;. For instance, leaves usually have higher nutrient content than stems to support their high physiological activity (He et al, 2019;Luo et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal variations in the growth status of declining wild apple trees in a narrow valley in the western Tianshan Mountains, China

et al. 2022

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Malus sieversii (wild apple tree), only distributed in the Tianshan Mountains in Central Asia, is a tertiary relic species and an ancestral species of cultivated apples. However, existing natural populations of wild apple trees have been declining. To date, spatiotemporal variations in the growth status of declining wild apple trees and influencing factors in the narrow valley areas in the Tianshan Mountains remain unclear. In this study, field investigation and sampling were carried out in three years (2016)(2017)(2018) at four elevations (1300, 1400, 1500, and 1600 m) in the Qiaolakesai Valley (a typical longitudinal narrow valley in the Yili River Valley) of the western Tianshan Mountains in Xinyuan County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. Projective coverage, dead branch percentage, and 18 twig traits (these 20 parameters were collectively referred to as plant traits) were determined to comprehensively reflect the growth status of declining wild apple trees. The values of dead branch percentage ranged from 36% to 59%, with a mean of 40%. Year generally showed higher impact on plant traits than elevation. In 2017 and 2018, projective coverage, leaf size, leaf nitrogen concentration, and nitrogen to phosphorous ratio were markedly higher than those in 2016. However, dead branch percentage and leaf and stem phosphorous concentrations showed the opposite trend. Most of the topological parameters of plant trait networks differed in the three years, but the strength of trait-trait association increased year by year. The mean difference between day and night temperatures (MDT), annual accumulative precipitation, soil electrical conductivity, and soil pH had the greatest impact on the plant trait matrix. The growth status of declining wild apple trees was directly and positively affected by MDT and leaf size. In conclusion, the growth of declining wild apple trees distributed in the narrow valley areas was more sensitive to interannual environmental changes than elevation changes. The results are of great significance for further revealing the decline mechanism of wild apple trees in the Tianshan Mountains.

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“…Furthermore, the underlying mechanism explaining complex structure and interspeci c relationships in communities that were in uenced by the temporal occurrence and spatial distribution of species and their functional characteristics remains an open question (Li, Wu & Xiao 2021). Attempts to better understand functional traits and their impacts on community assemblies include examinations of their distributions in position, peak, range, and variation (Cornwell & Ackerly 2009;He et al 2018;He et al 2020;Liu et al 2020), analyses of the convergence and divergence between traits among species within communities, demonstrations of species coexistence via the sharing and allocation of resources (Peng & Zhou 2014;Fu et al 2015), assessments of the relative impacts either environmental ltering or interspeci c competition (Perronne R 2017), and descriptions of how community assembly shapes the distribution of diversity (Jaillard et al 2014; Knelman & Nemergut 2014). In order to better understand the roles of environmental ltering and interspeci c competition in community assembly, comparisons have also been made between observed data and null models (i.e., assuming all species have the same function and coexist randomly) for range and variation of traits (Kraft NJB 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High grazing pressure accelerates changes in community assembly over time in a long-term grazing experiment in the desert steppe of northern China

Kang,

Wang,

Zhao

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Although numerous studies have shown that grazing gives rise to community succession at the species level, there is a lack of discussion about how grazing drives community assembly based on plant functional traits in a long-term experiment. We find different grazing intensities lead to temporal effects on trait-mediated multidimensional community assembly processes, including community weighted trait mean (CWM), trait filtering, and trait distribution (divergence/convergence). CWM, trait filtering, and trait distribution of different traits transformed over the 16-years grazing experiment. Major findings include the following: (1) CWM changed rapidly under higher grazing intensity, and the removal of unsuitable traits from communities over time was accelerated with grazing intensity. (2) Patterns of trait filtering strongly depended on grazing intensity and trait types, most traits were filtered at high grazing intensity area, and relative effects of trait filtering in the community assembly process strengthened with grazing time. (3) Traits related to the cycling of biological matter more frequently diverged after long-term grazing, especially in higher grazing areas. This reflects the importance of resource capture partitioning within species, giving priority to maintaining the basic biological matter cycle of the ecosystem under the long-term nutrient deficiency experienced by plants with overgrazing. These results showed that community assembly in this vulnerable ecosystem experiencing intense grazing takes more than a decade to develop and maintain fundamental ecosystem functions, such as biological matter cycling. We are also reminded of the importance of establishing grazing intensity thresholds to maintain sustainable utilization of grasslands in the desert steppe.

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Perspectives and challenges in plant traits: From organs to communities

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Biogeographic Patterns of Sulfur in the Vegetation of the Tibetan Plateau

Biogeographic Patterns of Sulfur in the Vegetation of the Tibetan Plateau

Spatiotemporal variations in the growth status of declining wild apple trees in a narrow valley in the western Tianshan Mountains, China

High grazing pressure accelerates changes in community assembly over time in a long-term grazing experiment in the desert steppe of northern China

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