Response of Leaf Traits of Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Broad-Leaved Woody Plants to Climatic Factors

Abstract

Plant ecologists have long been interested in quantifying how leaf traits vary with climate factors, but there is a paucity of knowledge on these relationships given a large number of the relevant leaf traits and climate factors to be considered. We examined the responses of 11 leaf traits (including leaf morphology, stomatal structure and chemical properties) to eight common climate factors for 340 eastern Qinghai-Tibetan woody species. We showed temperature as the strongest predictor of leaf size and shape, stomatal size and form, and leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, implying the important role of local heat quantity in determining the variation in the cell- or organ-level leaf morphology and leaf biochemical properties. The effects of moisture-related climate factors (including precipitation and humidity) on leaf growth were mainly through variability in leaf traits (e.g., specific leaf area and stomatal density) related to plant water-use physiological processes. In contrast, sunshine hours affected mainly cell- and organ-level leaf size and shape, with plants developing small/narrow leaves and stomata to decrease leaf damage and water loss under prolonged solar radiation. Moreover, two sets of significant leaf trait-climate relationships, i.e., the leaf/stomata size traits co-varying with temperature, and the water use-related leaf traits co-varying with precipitation, were obtained when analyzing multi-trait relationships, suggesting these traits as good indicators of climate gradients. Our findings contributed evidence to enhance understanding of the regional patterns in leaf trait variation and its environmental determinants.

Excess radiation exacerbates drought stress impacts on canopy conductance along aridity gradients

“…5a, b). Kang et al (2021) noted that plants tend to balance light capture with damage from high solar radiation. Solar radiation increased with increasing aridity on the LP and MP (Table S6).…”

“…Communities change their morphological functional traits to tolerate environmental stress, including leaf area (LA) and specific leaf area (SLA) (Wright et al, 2017). LA and SLA determine a plant's capacity to capture light (Poorter et al, 2009), leaf heat exchange (Wright et al, 2017), and the length of the water pathway through leaves (Kang et al, 2021) -all of which are closely related to transpiration and photosynthesis. Previous studies have focused primarily on the patterns of LA and SLA along environmental gradients (Peppe et al, 2011;Wright et al, 2017).…”

“…SLA generally decreases with increasing radiation and drought stress and increases with decreases in temperature (Poorter et al, 2009). Recently, a study conducted on woody species in eastern Qinghai-Tibet, China, showed that LA and stomatal size covaried with temperature (Kang et al, 2021), indicating that changes in LA and SLA may play important roles in regulating G s .…”

Distinct leaf functional traits of Tamarix chinensis at different habitats in the hinterland of the Taklimakan desert

“…Take leaf physiological traits for an example, several studies have revealed that simultaneous measurement of both LWC and δ 13 C provides a better understanding water use efficiency (WUE) response towards a reducing water supply in native species growing in arid or semi-arid environments ( Chen et al., 2007 ; Bouda et al., 2013 ; Easlon et al., 2014 ). Several studies have reported that species with higher SLA always pair with higher leaf N and P concentrations, these acquisitive traits result in a faster return on resource investment and promote rapid plant growth ( Wright and Cannon, 2001 ; Wright et al., 2004b ; Kang et al., 2021 ). On the contrary, the slow return on investments and growth rate result from more conservative traits combinations, for example, lower SLA with lower leaf elements traits and their stoichiometric characteristics ( Kang et al., 2021 ).…”

“…Several studies have reported that species with higher SLA always pair with higher leaf N and P concentrations, these acquisitive traits result in a faster return on resource investment and promote rapid plant growth ( Wright and Cannon, 2001 ; Wright et al., 2004b ; Kang et al., 2021 ). On the contrary, the slow return on investments and growth rate result from more conservative traits combinations, for example, lower SLA with lower leaf elements traits and their stoichiometric characteristics ( Kang et al., 2021 ). Accordingly, exploring the trait-trait relationships provide a better understanding of how plants develop a suite of trait combinations that enable them to adapt to native habitats.…”