Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Apr 9;9(1):5803. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42335-2.
Leaf functional traits have attracted the attention of ecologists for several decades, but few studies have systematically assessed leaf morphological traits (termed "economic traits"), stomatal (termed "hydraulic"), and anatomical traits of entire forest communities, thus it is unclear whether their relationships are consistent among trees, shrubs, and herbs, and which anatomical traits should be assigned to economical or hydraulic traits. In this study, we collected leaf samples of 106 plant species in temperate forests and 164 plant species in subtropical forests and determined nine key functional traits. We found that functional traits differed between temperate and subtropical forests. Leaf traits also differed between different plant functional groups, irrespective of forest type; dry matter content, stomatal density, and cell tense ratio followed the order trees > shrubs > herbs, whereas specific leaf area and sponginess ratio showed the opposite pattern. The correlations of leaf traits were not consistent among trees, shrubs, and herbs, which may reflect different adaptive strategies. Principal component analysis indicated that leaf economics and hydraulic traits were uncoupled in temperate and subtropical forests, and correlations of anatomical traits and economic and hydraulic traits were weak, indicating anatomical traits should be emphasized in future studies.
几十年来，叶功能性状一直引起生态学家的关注，但很少有研究系统评估叶形态性状（称为“经济性状”）、气孔（称为“水力”）和整个森林群落的解剖学性状，因此尚不清楚它们在乔木、灌木和草本植物之间的关系是否一致，以及哪些解剖学性状应归为经济性状或水力性状。在这项研究中，我们收集了温带森林中 106 种植物和亚热带森林中 164 种植物的叶片样本，并测定了 9 个关键功能性状。我们发现，功能性状在温带和亚热带森林之间存在差异。叶片性状也因植物功能群的不同而不同，而与森林类型无关；干物质含量、气孔密度和细胞紧张比的顺序为乔木＞灌木＞草本植物，而比叶面积和海绵组织比则相反。叶片性状在乔木、灌木和草本植物之间的相关性不一致，这可能反映了不同的适应策略。主成分分析表明，温带和亚热带森林中叶片的经济和水力性状是解耦的，解剖学性状与经济和水力性状的相关性较弱，这表明在未来的研究中应强调解剖学性状。
