Stoichiometric characteristics of woody plant leaves and responses to climate and soil factors in China

PLOS ONE · 5 authors, 2 centres

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It found that the scaling exponent between nitrogen and phosphorus varies significantly among different plant life forms and does not follow a universal 2/3 power law.

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This ecological study analyzed a dataset of 10,719 paired nitrogen and phosphorus concentration measurements from the leaves of Chinese woody plants across various provinces. The research aimed to determine if a general scaling exponent of 2/3, observed globally, applies to different functional groups within China. The results showed that nitrogen content was primarily driven by life form, while phosphorus content was mainly driven by mean annual temperature. The N-P scaling exponent differed among life forms, with values ranging from 0.63 for evergreen plants to 0.72 for deciduous plants and shrubs, and was significantly correlated with climatic factors. The study concludes there is no typical, universal scaling exponent for N and P in Chinese woody plant leaves, suggesting that comprehensive data analysis may conceal significant biological and ecological variation.

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other

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biomedical research

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ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10513206

Stoichiometric characteristics of woody plant leaves and responses to climate and soil factors in China

PLOS ONE

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ABSTRACT

Abstract The main research content of the field of ecological stoichiometry is the energy of various chemical elements and the interaction between organisms and the environment throughout ecological processes. Nitrogen and phosphorus are the main elements required for the growth and development of plants and these also form the constituent basis of biological organisms. Both elements interact and jointly regulate the growth and development of plants, and their element ratios are an indication of the nutrient utilization rate and nutrient limitation status of plants. Previous research developed a general biogeography model of the stoichiometric relationship between nitrogen and phosphorus in plant leaves on a global scale. Further, it was shown that the relative rate of nitrogen uptake by leaves was lower than that of phosphorus, and the scaling exponent of nitrogen and phosphorus was 2/3. However, it is not clear how the stoichiometric values of nitrogen and phosphorus, especially their scaling exponents, change in the leaves of Chinese woody plants in response to changing environmental conditions. Therefore, data sets of leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, and nitrogen to phosphorus ratios in Chinese woody plants were compiled and classified according to different life forms. The overall average concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in leaves were 20.77 ± 8.12 mg g -1 and 1.58 ± 1.00 mg g -1 , respectively. The contents of nitrogen and phosphorus in leaves of deciduous plants were significantly higher than those of evergreen plants. In leaves, life form is the main driving factor of nitrogen content, and mean annual temperature is the main driving factor of phosphorus content; soil available nitrogen is the main driving factor of the nitrogen to phosphorus ratio. These values can be used for comparison with other studies. In addition, the scale index was found to be significantly different among different life forms. The scaling exponents of N-P of woody plants of different life forms, such as trees, shrubs, evergreen, deciduous, and coniferous plants are 0.67, 0.72, 0.63, 0.72, and 0.66, respectively. The N-P scaling exponent of shrubs was higher than that of trees, and that of deciduous plants was higher than that of evergreen plants. These results suggest that the internal attributes of different life forms, the growth rate related to phosphorus, and the relative nutrient availability of soil are the reasons for the unsteady relationship between nitrogen and phosphorus in leaves.

CITATION EXPORT

Xiangguang Duan, Xiao Guo, Xiao Guo et al.. Stoichiometric characteristics of woody plant leaves and responses to climate and soil factors in China. PLOS ONE. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291957

AUTHORS

5 · 2 CENTRES

Xiangguang Duan, Xiao Guo, Xiao Guo, Xiao Guo, Xiao Guo

1School of Tourism, Xinyang Normal University, Henan, China
2Qingdao Agricultural University, CHINA