Spatial variation and mechanisms of leaf water content in grassland plants at the biome scale: evidence from three comparative transects

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-88678-7

	Spatial variation and mechanisms of leaf water content in grassland plants at the biome scale: evidence from three comparative transects
	Wang, Ruomeng 1,2; He, Nianpeng 1,2,3; Li, Shenggong 1,2; Li Xu 1; Li, Mingxu 1
刊名	SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
	2021-04-29
卷号	11 期号:1 页码:12
ISSN号	2045-2322
DOI	10.1038/s41598-021-88678-7
通讯作者	He, Nianpeng(henp@igsnrr.ac.cn) ; Li, Shenggong(lisg@igsnrr.ac.cn)
英文摘要	Leaf water content (LWC) has important physiological and ecological significance for plant growth. However, it is still unclear how LWC varies over large spatial scale and with plant adaptation strategies. Here, we measured the LWC of 1365 grassland plants, along three comparative precipitation transects from meadow to desert on the Mongolia Plateau (MP), Loess Plateau, and Tibetan Plateau, respectively, to explore its spatial variation and the underlying mechanisms that determine this variation. The LWC data were normally distributed with an average value of 0.66 g g(-1). LWC was not significantly different among the three plateaus, but it differed significantly among different plant life forms. Spatially, LWC in the three plateaus all decreased and then increased from meadow to desert grassland along a precipitation gradient. Unexpectedly, climate and genetic evolution only explained a small proportion of the spatial variation of LWC in all plateaus, and LWC was only weakly correlated with precipitation in the water-limited MP. Overall, the lasso variation in LWC with precipitation in all plateaus represented an underlying trade-off between structural investment and water income in plants, for better survival in various environments. In brief, plants should invest less to thrive in a humid environment (meadow), increase more investment to keep a relatively stable LWC in a drying environment, and have high investment to hold higher LWC in a dry environment (desert). Combined, these results indicate that LWC should be an important variable in future studies of large-scale trait variations.
资助项目	National Natural Science Foundation of China[31961143022] ; National Natural Science Foundation of China[31800368] ; National Natural Science Foundation of China[31770655] ; program of Youth Innovation Research Team Project[LENOM2016Q0005]
WOS关键词	TRAIT VARIATION ; ROOT-GROWTH ; RANGE SIZE ; AREA ; DIMENSIONS ; PATTERNS ; SUMMER ; SHAPE
WOS研究方向	Science & Technology - Other Topics
语种	英语
出版者	NATURE RESEARCH
WOS记录号	WOS:000656206800010
资助机构	National Natural Science Foundation of China ; program of Youth Innovation Research Team Project
内容类型	期刊论文
源URL	[http://ir.igsnrr.ac.cn/handle/311030/164005]
专题	中国科学院地理科学与资源研究所
通讯作者	He, Nianpeng; Li, Shenggong
作者单位	1.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Geog Sci & Nat Resources Res, Key Lab Ecosyst Network Observat & Modeling, 11A Datun Rd, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 2.Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Coll Resources & Environm, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China 3.Minist Educ, Key Lab Vegetat Ecol, Changchun 130024, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Wang, Ruomeng,He, Nianpeng,Li, Shenggong,et al. Spatial variation and mechanisms of leaf water content in grassland plants at the biome scale: evidence from three comparative transects[J]. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS,2021,11(1):12.
APA	Wang, Ruomeng,He, Nianpeng,Li, Shenggong,Li Xu,&Li, Mingxu.(2021).Spatial variation and mechanisms of leaf water content in grassland plants at the biome scale: evidence from three comparative transects.SCIENTIFIC REPORTS,11(1),12.
MLA	Wang, Ruomeng,et al."Spatial variation and mechanisms of leaf water content in grassland plants at the biome scale: evidence from three comparative transects".SCIENTIFIC REPORTS 11.1(2021):12.