Zhang Shudong, Liu Guofang, Cui Qingguo, Huang Zhenying, Ye Xuehua, Cornelissen Johannes H C
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, People's Republic of China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.
Plant Methods. 2021 Jan 6;17(1):5. doi: 10.1186/s13007-020-00705-2.
Wind strongly impacts plant growth, leaf traits, biomass allocation, and stem mechanical properties. However, whether there are common whole-plant wind responses among different plant species is still unclear. We tested this null hypothesis by exposing four eudicot steppe species to three different wind treatments in a field experiment: reduced wind velocity using windbreaks, ambient wind velocity, and enhanced wind velocity through a novel methodology using wind-funneling baffles.
Across the four species, wind generally decreased plant height, projected crown area, and stepwise bifurcation ratio, and increased root length and stem base diameter. In contrast, the response patterns of shoot traits, especially mechanical properties, to wind velocity were idiosyncratic among species. There was no significant difference in total biomass among different treatments; this might be because the negative effects on heat dissipation and photosynthesis of low wind speed during hot periods, could counteract positive effects during favorable cooler periods.
There are common wind response patterns in plant-size-related traits across different steppe species, while the response patterns in shoot traits vary among species. This indicates the species-specific ways by which plants balance growth and mechanical support facing wind stress. Our new field wind manipulation methodology was effective in altering wind speed with the intended magnitude. Especially, our field wind-funneling baffle system showed a great potential for use in future field wind velocity enhancement. Further experiments are needed to reveal how negative and positive effects play out on whole-plant performance in response to different wind regimes, which is important as ongoing global climatic changes involve big changes in wind regimes.
风对植物生长、叶片性状、生物量分配和茎干机械性能有强烈影响。然而，不同植物物种之间是否存在共同的全株风响应仍不清楚。我们通过在田间试验中将四种双子叶草原物种暴露于三种不同的风处理来检验这一零假设：使用防风林降低风速、环境风速以及通过一种使用风漏斗挡板的新方法提高风速。
在这四个物种中，风通常会降低株高、投影树冠面积和逐步分叉率，并增加根长和茎基部直径。相比之下，地上部性状，尤其是机械性能，对风速的响应模式在物种间是特异的。不同处理之间的总生物量没有显著差异；这可能是因为炎热时期低风速对散热和光合作用的负面影响，可能抵消了凉爽时期的积极影响。
不同草原物种在与植物大小相关的性状上存在共同的风响应模式，而地上部性状的响应模式在物种间有所不同。这表明植物在面对风胁迫时平衡生长和机械支撑的物种特异性方式。我们新的田间风操纵方法有效地改变了风速至预期幅度。特别是，我们的田间风漏斗挡板系统在未来提高田间风速方面显示出巨大潜力。需要进一步的实验来揭示正负效应如何影响全株性能以响应不同的风况，这很重要，因为当前的全球气候变化涉及风况的巨大变化。
