Zhang Jiahui, Ren Tingting, Yang Junjie, Xu Li, Li Mingxu, Zhang Yunhai, Han Xingguo, He Nianpeng
Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2021 Jan 22;12:580340. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.580340. eCollection 2021.
Elements are important functional traits reflecting plant response to climate change. Multiple elements work jointly in plant physiology. Although a large number of studies have focused on the variation and allocation of multiple elements in plants, it remains unclear how these elements co-vary to adapt to environmental change. We proposed a novel concept of the multi-element network including the mutual effects between element concentrations to more effectively explore the alterations in response to long-term nitrogen (N) deposition. Leaf multi-element networks were constructed with 18 elements (i.e., six macronutrients, six micronutrients, and six trace elements) in this study. Multi-element networks were species-specific, being effectively discriminated irrespective of N deposition level. Different sensitive elements and interactions to N addition were found in different species, mainly concentrating on N, Ca, Mg, Mn, Li, Sr, Ba, and their related stoichiometry. Interestingly, high plasticity of multi-element network increased or maintained relative aboveground biomass (species dominance) in community under simulated N deposition, which developed the multi-element network hypothesis. In summary, multi-element networks provide a novel approach for exploring the adaptation strategies of plants and to better predict the change of species dominance under altering nutrient availability or environmental stress associated with future global climate change.
元素是反映植物对气候变化响应的重要功能性状。多种元素在植物生理过程中协同作用。尽管大量研究聚焦于植物中多种元素的变化和分配，但这些元素如何共同变化以适应环境变化仍不清楚。我们提出了一个新的多元素网络概念，包括元素浓度之间的相互作用，以便更有效地探索长期氮（N）沉降响应中的变化。本研究构建了包含18种元素（即6种大量元素、6种微量元素和6种痕量元素）的叶片多元素网络。多元素网络具有物种特异性，无论氮沉降水平如何都能有效区分。在不同物种中发现了对氮添加的不同敏感元素和相互作用，主要集中在氮、钙、镁、锰、锂、锶、钡及其相关化学计量上。有趣的是，在模拟氮沉降下，多元素网络的高可塑性增加或维持了群落中相对地上生物量（物种优势度），这发展了多元素网络假说。总之，多元素网络为探索植物的适应策略以及更好地预测在未来全球气候变化相关的养分有效性改变或环境胁迫下物种优势度的变化提供了一种新方法。
