Fernández-Martínez Marcos, Corbera Jordi, Cano-Rocabayera Oriol, Sabater Francesc, Preece Catherine
Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium.
Delegació de la Serralada Litoral Central, ICHN, 08302 Mataró, Catalonia, Spain.
Plants (Basel). 2021 Jul 31;10(8):1581. doi: 10.3390/plants10081581.
Differences in the elemental composition of plants, mainly C, N, and P, have been shown to be related to differences in their nutritional status, and their morphological and functional traits. The relationship between morphological traits and micronutrients and trace elements, however, has been much less studied. Additionally, in bryophytes, research devoted to investigating these relationships is still very scarce. Here, we analysed 80 samples from 29 aquatic and semi-aquatic (hygrophytic) moss species living in Mediterranean springs to investigate the relationship between moss nutrient concentrations and their micro- and macroscopic morphological traits and growth forms. We found that, across species, the elemental concentration of mosses was more tightly linked to macroscopic traits than to microscopic traits. Growth forms could also be successfully explained by the concentration of elements in mosses. Apart from macronutrients and their stoichiometric ratios (C:N, C:P, and N:P), micronutrients and trace elements were also important variables predicting moss morphological traits and growth forms. Additionally, our results showed that microscopic traits were well related to macroscopic traits. Overall, our results clearly indicate that the elemental composition of mosses can be used to infer their morphological traits, and that elements other than macronutrients should be taken into account to achieve a good representation of their morphological and, potentially, functional traits when comparing the elemental composition across species.
植物元素组成的差异，主要是碳、氮和磷，已被证明与它们的营养状况、形态和功能特征的差异有关。然而，形态特征与微量营养素和微量元素之间的关系研究得要少得多。此外，在苔藓植物中，致力于研究这些关系的研究仍然非常稀少。在这里，我们分析了来自生活在地中海泉水中的29种水生和半水生（湿生）苔藓物种的80个样本，以研究苔藓营养浓度与其微观和宏观形态特征及生长形式之间的关系。我们发现，跨物种来看苔藓的元素浓度与宏观特征的联系比与微观特征的联系更为紧密。苔藓的元素浓度也能够成功解释其生长形式。除了大量营养素及其化学计量比（碳：氮、碳：磷和氮：磷）外，微量营养素和微量元素也是预测苔藓形态特征和生长形式的重要变量。此外，我们的结果表明微观特征与宏观特征密切相关。总体而言，我们的结果清楚地表明，苔藓的元素组成可用于推断其形态特征，并且在比较不同物种的元素组成时，除了大量营养素外，还应考虑其他元素，以便更好地呈现它们的形态特征以及潜在的功能特征。
