Institute of Environmental Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, People's Republic of China
Ningxia (China-Arab) Key Laboratory of Resource Assessment and Environmental Regulation in the Arid Region, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, People's Republic of China.
Biol Lett. 2018 Jul;14(7). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0382.
An increase in foliar nitrogen isotope composition (δN) with decreasing precipitation has been shown to occur widely in non-N-fixing plant species. However, similar patterns have not been identified in N-fixing species. Here, we tested the relationships of foliar δN with local environmental factors and leaf properties in two leguminous shrub species ( and ) sampled from 30 populations. Results indicated that the mean annual precipitation (MAP) primarily accounted for the variation of foliar δN in the two species. Further analysis revealed strong negative correlations between foliar δN and MAP within and across species. These results suggest that the foliar δN of leguminous shrub species also shift along precipitation gradients, which augments our understanding of the relationships between foliar δN and climatic factors.
叶片氮同位素组成（δN）随降水量减少而增加的现象在非固氮植物物种中广泛存在。然而，在固氮物种中尚未发现类似的模式。在这里，我们测试了 30 个种群中两种豆科灌木物种（和）的叶片 δN 与当地环境因素和叶片特性之间的关系。结果表明，年平均降水量（MAP）主要解释了这两个物种叶片 δN 的变化。进一步的分析表明，种内和种间的叶片 δN 与 MAP 之间存在强烈的负相关关系。这些结果表明，豆科灌木物种的叶片 δN 也会沿着降水梯度发生变化，这增加了我们对叶片 δN 与气候因素之间关系的理解。
