Pan Liben, Wang Tianqi, Gavrikov Vladimir L, Guo Xiaorui, Mu Liqiang, Tang Zhonghua
School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China.
Key Laboratory of Forest Plant Ecology, Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2025 Jan 28;16:1503169. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1503169. eCollection 2025.
Spring ephemeral plants represent a unique ecological category of herbaceous plants, characterized by early blooming and vivid flowers with significant ornamental value. Understanding the adaptive strategies of spring ephemerals is crucial for the introduction and cultivation of early spring plants, as well as for optimizing light energy utilization and nutrient cycling within ecosystems.
We evaluated 26 functional traits across four spring ephemerals and four spring non-ephemeral plants along an elevation gradient. By establishing a plant functional trait network, we examined the adaptation strategies of early spring plants at different elevations and compared the differences in adaptation strategies between two types of plants.
Spring ephemerals exhibited higher concentrations of carbon and nitrogen, lower concentrations of carbohydrates, higher edge density and modularity in trait networks, and stronger linkages between defense traits. Plants at higher elevations demonstrated higher leaf dry matter content and leaf total flavonoid concentration, and lower nitrogen concentration, influenced by temperature, precipitation, and soil nutrients.
These results demonstrated that spring ephemerals have a strong nutrient uptake capacity, and adopt resource competition strategies to rapidly accumulate nutrients and reproduce. The plants at higher elevations adopt more conservative strategies, with trait networks showing increased modularity, edge density, and closer correlations among traits to enhance resource utilization. This study provides new insights into the adaptive strategies of spring ephemerals by demonstrating how plants allocate resources for growth and defense through the regulation of trait variation and correlations among traits.
春季短命植物是草本植物中一类独特的生态类别，其特点是开花早且花朵鲜艳，具有很高的观赏价值。了解春季短命植物的适应策略对于早春植物的引种和栽培，以及优化生态系统中的光能利用和养分循环至关重要。
我们沿着海拔梯度评估了四种春季短命植物和四种春季非短命植物的26个功能性状。通过建立植物功能性状网络，我们研究了不同海拔高度早春植物的适应策略，并比较了两类植物在适应策略上的差异。
春季短命植物表现出较高的碳和氮浓度、较低的碳水化合物浓度、性状网络中较高的边缘密度和模块性，以及防御性状之间更强的联系。受温度、降水和土壤养分影响，海拔较高处的植物表现出较高的叶片干物质含量和叶片总黄酮浓度，以及较低的氮浓度。
这些结果表明，春季短命植物具有很强的养分吸收能力，并采用资源竞争策略来快速积累养分和繁殖。海拔较高处的植物采用更为保守的策略，其性状网络显示出模块性增加、边缘密度增加以及性状之间的相关性更强，以提高资源利用效率。本研究通过展示植物如何通过调节性状变异和性状之间的相关性来分配资源用于生长和防御，为春季短命植物的适应策略提供了新的见解。
