Plant morphometric traits and climate gradients in northern China: A meta-analysis using quadrat and flora data

Annals of Botany

Volumn 104, Issue 6, 2009, Pages 1217-1229

  Meng, Ting Ting ^a,b,c   Ni, Jian ^a,d   Harrison, Sandy P ^c  

^a INSTITUTE OF BOTANY   (China)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES   (China)

^c UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL   (United Kingdom)

^d ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE FOR POLAR AND MARINE RESEARCH   (Germany)

Author keywords

Akaike Information Criterion; Aridity; Climate gradient; Functional types; Northern China; Plant life form; Plant morphometric traits

Indexed keywords

ABUNDANCE; AKAIKE INFORMATION CRITERION; ARIDITY; BIOCLIMATOLOGY; CANONICAL ANALYSIS; CLIMATE VARIATION; CORRESPONDENCE ANALYSIS; DECIDUOUS TREE; EVAPOTRANSPIRATION; EVERGREEN TREE; GROWING SEASON; LIFE HISTORY TRAIT; META-ANALYSIS; MOISTURE CONTENT; MORPHOMETRY; PHENOLOGY; PHOTOSYNTHESIS; PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS;

ARTICLE; BIODIVERSITY; CHINA; CLIMATE; GEOGRAPHY; HISTOLOGY; META ANALYSIS; PHOTOSYNTHESIS; PHYSIOLOGY; PLANT; PLANT LEAF; PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS; QUANTITATIVE TRAIT; TEMPERATURE;

BIODIVERSITY; CHINA; CLIMATE; GEOGRAPHY; META-ANALYSIS AS TOPIC; PHOTOSYNTHESIS; PLANT LEAVES; PLANTS; PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS; QUANTITATIVE TRAIT, HERITABLE; TEMPERATURE;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST;

EID: 70350514258     PISSN: 03057364     EISSN: 10958290     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcp230     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. Ackerly DD, Reich PB. 1999. Convergence and correlations among leaf size and function in seed plants: a comparative test using independent contrasts. American Journal of Botany 86: 1272-1281.
2. Ackerly DD, Knight CA,Weiss SB, Barton K, Starmer KP. 2002. Leaf size, specific leaf area and microhabitat distribution of chaparral woody plants: contrasting patterns in species level and community level analyses. Oecologia 130: 449-457.
3. Adler PB, Milchunas DG, Lauenroth WK, Sala OE, Burke IC. 2004. Functional traits of graminoids in semi-arid steppes: a test of grazing histories. Journal of Applied Ecology 41: 653-663.
4. Archer S. 1984. The distribution of photosynthetic pathway types on a mixedgrass prairie hillside. American Midland Naturalist 111: 138-142.
5. Barboni D, Harrison SP, Bartlein PJ, et al. 2004. Relationships between plant traits and climate in the Mediterranean region: a pollen data analysis. Journal of Vegetation Science 15: 635-646.
6. ter Braak CJF. 1987. The analysis of vegetation environment relationships by canonical correspondence analysis. Vegetatio 69: 69-77.
7. ter Braak CJF, Prentice IC. 1988. A theory of gradient analysis. Advances in Ecological Research 18 271-317.
8. Canadell J, Jackson RB, Ehleringer JR, Mooney HA, Sala OE, Schulze ED. 1996. Maximum rooting depth for vegetation types at the global scale. Oecologia 108: 583-595.
9. Chen SP, Lin GH, Huang JH, Jenerette GD. 2009. Dependence of carbon sequestration on the differential responses of ecosystem photosynthesis and respiration to rain pulses in a semiarid steppe. Global Change Biology (in press) doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01879.x
10. Cornelissen JHC, Lavorel S, Garnier E, et al. 2003. A handbook of protocols for standardised and easy measurement of plant functional traits worldwide. Australian Journal of Botany 51: 335-380.
11. Cowling RM, Campbell BM. 1980. Convergence in vegetation structure in the Mediterranean communities of California, Chile and South Africa. Vegetatio 43: 191-197.
12. Defries RS, Hansen MC, Townshend JRG, Janetos AC, Loveland TR. 2000. A new global 1-km dataset of percentage tree cover derived from remote sensing. Global Change Biology 6: 247-254.
13. Dý́az S, Cabido M. 1997. Plant functional types and ecosystem function in relation to global change. Journal of Vegetation Science 8: 463-474.
14. Dý́az S, Cabido M, Casanoves F. 1998. Plant functional traits and environmental filters at a regional scale. Journal of Vegetation Science 9: 113-122.
15. Dý́az S, Noy-Meir I, Cabido M. 2001. Can grazing response of herbaceous plants be predicted from simple vegetative traits? Journal of Applied Ecology 38: 497-508.
16. Editorial Board of Flora Intramongolica. 1989-1998. Flora Intramongolica, 2nd edn. Hohhot: Typis Intramongolicae Popularis. Editorial Board of Flora Qinghaiica. 1996-1999. Flora Qinghaiica. Xining: Qinghai People's Publishing House.
17. Editorial Board of Flora Xinjiangensis. 1993-1999. Flora Xinjiangensis. Urumqi: Xinjiang Science and Technology and Hygiene Publishing House.
18. Editorial Committee of Flora of China (ECFC). 1959-2004. Flora of China (Chinese Edition). Beijing: Science Press.
19. Ehleringer JR, Monson RK. 1993. Evolutionary and ecological aspects of photosynthetic pathway variation. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 24: 411-439.
20. Farr TG, Rosen PA, Caro E, et al. 2007. The shuttle radar topography mission. Reviews of Geophysics 45: Art. No. RG2004, doi:10.1029/2005RG000183. (Pubitemid 47323999)
21. Fonseca CR, Overton JM, Collins B, Westoby M. 2000. Shifts in traitcombinations along rainfall and phosphorus gradients. Journal of Ecology 88: 964-977.
22. Garnier E, Cortez J, Billes G, et al. 2004. Plant functional markers capture ecosystem properties during secondary succession. Ecology 85: 2630-2637.
23. Goldberg DE, Landa K. 1991. Competitive effect and response - hierarchies and correlated traits in the early stages of competition. Journal of Ecology 79: 1013-1030.
24. Haxeltine A, Prentice IC. 1996. BIOME3: an equilibrium terrestrial biosphere model based on ecophysiological constraints, resource availability, and competition among plant functional types. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 10: 693-709.
25. He JS, Fang JY, Wang ZH, Guo DL, Flynn DFB, Geng Z. 2006. Stoichiometry and large-scale patterns of leaf carbon and nitrogen in the grassland biomes of China. Oecologia 149: 115-122.
26. Hutchinson MF. 2006. ANUSPLIN Version 4.36 User Guide. Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies. Canberra: The Australian National University.
27. IAECAS (Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences). 2002. Herbarium of Northeast China (IFP). http://www.sybbg.com.
28. IBCAS (Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences). 1987. Iconographia Cormophytorum Sinicorum. Beijing: Science Press.
29. Jarvis PG, McNaughton KG. 1986. Stomatal control of transpiration: scaling up from leaf to region. Advances in Ecological Research 15: 1-49.
30. Jefferson PG, Johnson DA, Asay KH. 1989. Epicuticular wax production, water status and leaf temperature in Triticeae range grasses of contrasting visible glaucousness. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 69: 513-519.
31. Johnson JB, Omland KS. 2004. Model selection in ecology and evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19: 101-108.
32. Keddy PA. 1992. Assembly and response rules: two goals for predictive community ecology. Journal of Vegetation Science 3: 157-164.
33. Larcher W. 1995. Physiological plant ecology, 3rd edn. Berlin: Springer.
34. Lavorel S, McIntyre S, Landsberg J, Forbes TDA. 1997. Plant functional classifications: from general groups to specific groups based on response to disturbance. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 12: 474-478.
35. Lavorel S, Dý́az S, Cornelissen JHC, et al. 2007. Plant functional types: are we getting any closer to the Holy Grail? In: Canadell J, Pitelka LF, Pataki D. eds. Terrestrial ecosystems in a changing world. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 149-164.
36. Legendre P. 1993. Spatial autocorrelation: trouble or new paradigm? Ecology 74: 1659-1673.
37. Liu XQ, Wang RZ, Li YZ. 2004. Photosynthetic pathway types in rangeland plant species from Inner Mongolia, North China. Photosynthetica 42: 339-344.
38. Luo TX, Luo J, Pan YD. 2005. Leaf traits and associated ecosystem characteristics across subtropical and timberline forests in the Gongga Mountains, Eastern Tibetan Plateau. Oecologia 142: 261-273.
39. McIntyre S, Lavorel S, Landsberg J, Forbes TDA. 1999. Disturbance response in vegetation towards a global perspective on functional traits. Journal of Vegetation Science 10: 621-630.
40. Moles AT, Ackerly DD, Tweddle JC, et al. 2007. Global patterns in seed size. Global Ecology and Biogeography 16: 109-116.
41. Mooney HA, Dunn EL. 1970. Convergent evolution of mediterranean-climate evergreen sclerophyll shrubs. Evolution 24: 292-303.
42. Morecroft MD, Woodward FI. 1996. Experiments on the causes of altitudinal differences in the leaf nutrient contents, size and d13C of Alchemilla alpina. New Phytologist 134: 471-479.
43. Niinemets U. 2001. Global-scale climatic controls of leaf dry mass per area, density, and thickness in trees and shrubs. Ecology 82: 453-469.
44. Niinemets U, Portsmuth A, Tobias M. 2006. Leaf size modifies support biomass distribution among stems, petioles and mid-ribs in temperate plants. New Phytologist 171: 91-104.
45. Niinemets U, Portsmuth A, Tena D, et al. 2007. Do we underestimate the importance of leaf size in plant economics? Disproportional scaling of support costs within the spectrum of leaf physiognomy. Annals of Botany 100: 283-303.
46. Pausas JG, Bradstock RA, Keith DA, Keeley JE. 2004. Plant functional traits in relation to fire in crown-fire ecosystems. Ecology 85: 1085-1100.
47. Pearcy RW, Troughton J. 1975. C4 photosynthesis in tree form Euphorbia species from Hawaiian rainforest sites. Plant Physiology 55: 1054-1056.
48. Polley HW, Johnson HB, Mayeux HS. 1992. Carbon dioxide and water fluxes of C3 annuals and C3 and C4 perennials at subambient CO2 Concentrations. Functional Ecology 6: 693-703.
49. Poorter L, Rozendaal D. 2008. Leaf size and leaf display of thirty-eight tropical tree species. Oecologia 158: 35-46.
50. Priestley CHB, Taylor RJ. 1972. On the assessment of surface heat flux and evaporation using large-scale parameters. Monthly Weather Review 100: 81-92.
51. Prentice IC, Jolly D. 2000. Mid-Holocene and glacial-maximum vegetation geography of the northern continents and Africa. Journal of Biogeography 27: 507-519.
52. Prentice IC, Cramer W, Harrison SP, Leemans R, Monserud RA, Solomon AM. 1992. A global biome model based on plant physiology and dominance, soil properties and climate. Journal of Biogeography 19: 117-134.
53. Prentice IC, Bondeau A, Cramer W, et al. 2007. Dynamic vegetation modelling: quantifying terrestrial ecosystem responses to large-scale environmental change. In: Canadell J, Pitelka LF, Pataki D. eds. Terrestrial ecosystems in a changing world. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 175-192.
54. Pyankov VI, Black CC, Artyusheva EG, Voznesenskaya EV, Ku MSB, Edwards GE. 1999. Features of photosynthesis in Haloxylon species of Chenopodiaceae that are dominant plants in Central Asian deserts. Plant Cell Physiology 40: 125-134.
55. R Development Core Team. 2008. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing, http://www.R-project.org.
56. Reich PB, Oleksyn J. 2004. Global patterns of plant leaf N and P in relation to temperature and latitude. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101: 11001-11006.
57. Reich PB,Walters MB, Ellsworth DS. 1992. Leaf life-span in relation to leaf, plant, and stand characteristics among diverse ecosystems. Ecological Monographs 62: 365-392.
58. Reich PB, Ellsworth DS, Walters MB, et al. 1999. Generality of leaf trait relationships: a test across six biomes. Ecology 80: 1955-1969.
59. Reich PB, Tilman D, Craine J, et al. 2001. Do species and functional groups differ in acquisition and use of C, N and water under varying atmospheric CO2 and N availability regimes? A field test with 16 grassland species. New Phytologist 150: 435-448.
60. Reich PB, Buschena C, Tjoelker MG, et al. 2003. Variation in growth rate and ecophysiology among 34 grassland and savanna species under contrasting N supply: a test of functional group differences. New Phytologist 157: 617-631.
61. Santiago LS, Wright SJ. 2007. Leaf functional traits of tropical forest plants in relation to growth form. Functional Ecology 21: 19-27.
62. Sayed OH. 1998. Phenomorphology and ecophysiology of desert succulents in eastern Arabia. Journal of Arid Environments 40: 177-189.
63. Sayed OH. 2001. Crassulacean acid metabolism 1975-2000, a check list. Photosynthetica 39: 339-352.
64. Schulze E-D, Mooney HA. 1993. Biodiversity and ecosystem function. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
65. Shaw PJA. 2003. Multivariate statistics for the environmental sciences. London: Hodder-Arnold.
66. Shreve F, Wiggins IL. 1964. Vegetation and flora of the Sonoran Desert. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
67. Skarpe C. 1986. Plant community structure in relation to grazing and environmental changes along a south-north transect in western Kalahari. Vegetatio 68: 3-18.
68. Swenson NG, Enquist BJ. 2007. Ecological and evolutionary determinants of a key plant functional trait: wood density and its community-wide variation across latitude and elevation. American Journal of Botany 94: 451-459.
69. Tang CQ, Ohsawa M. 1999. Altitudinal distribution of evergreen broadleaved trees and their leaf-size pattern on a humid subtropical mountain, Mt. Emei, Sichuan, China. Plant Ecology 145: 221-233.
70. Watson L, Dallwitz MJ. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification and information retrieval. http://www.biologie.unihamburg.de/b-online/delta/angio/index.htm.
71. Wang GH. 2005. The western Ordos plateau as a biodiversity center of relic shrubs in arid areas of China. Biodiversity and Conservation 14: 3187-3200.
72. Wang GH. 2007. Leaf trait co-variation, response and effect in a chronosequence. Journal of Vegetation Science 18: 563-570.
73. Wang GH, Ni J. 2005a. Plant traits and environmental condition along the Northeast China Transect (NECT). Ekologia-Bratislava 24: 207-222.
74. Wang GH, Ni J. 2005b. Responses of plant functional types to an environment gradient on the Northeast China Transect. Ecology Research 20: 563-572.
75. Wang GH, Zhou GS, Yang LM, Li ZQ. 2003. Distribution, species diversity and life-form spectra of plant communities along an altitudinal gradient in the northern slopes of Qilianshan Mountains, Gansu, China. Plant Ecology 165: 169-181.
76. Wang RZ. 2002. Photosynthetic pathways and life forms in different grassland types from North China. Photosynthetica 40: 243-250.
77. Wang RZ. 2003. Photosynthetic pathway and morphological functional types in the steppe vegetation from Inner Mongolia, North China. Photosynthetica 41: 143-150.
78. Wang RZ. 2004a. C4 species and their response to large-scale longitudinal variables along the Northeast China Transect (NECT). Photosynthetica 42: 71-79.
79. Wang RZ. 2004b. Photosynthetic pathways and life form types for native plant species from Hulunbeier Rangelands, Inner Mongolia, North China. Photosynthetica 42: 219-227.
80. Wang T, Liang Y, Ren HB, Yu D, Ni J, Ma KP. 2004. Age structure of Picea schrenkiana forest along an altitudinal gradient in the central Tianshan Mountains, northwestern China. Forest Ecology and Management 196: 267-274.
81. Wentworth TR. 1983. Distribution of C4 plants along environmental and compositional gradients in southeastern Arizona. Vegetatio 52: 21-34.
82. Werger MJA, Ellenbroek GA. 1978. Leaf size and leaf consistence of a riverine forest formation along a climatic gradient. Oecologia 34: 297-308.
83. Werger MJA, Ellis RP. 1981. Photosynthetic pathway in the arid regions of South Africa. Flora 171: 64-75.
84. Westoby M, Falster DS, Moles AT, Vesk PA, Wright IJ. 2002. Plant ecological strategies: some leading dimensions of variation between species. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 33: 125-159.
85. Winter K. 1981. C4 plants of high biomass in arid regions of Asia-occurrence of C4 photosynthetsis in Chenopodiaceae and Polygonaceae from the Middle East and USSR. Oecologia 48: 100-106.
86. Woodward FI, Cramer W. 1996. Plant functional types and climatic change: introduction. Journal of Vegetation Science 7: 306-308.
87. Wright IJ,Westoby M. 2002. Leaves at low versus high rainfall: coordination of structure, lifespan and physiology. New Phytologist 155: 403-416.
88. Wright IJ, Reich PB,Westoby M, et al. 2004. The worldwide leaf economics spectrum. Nature 428: 821-827.
89. Wright IJ, Reich PB, Cornelissen JHC, et al. 2005. Modulation of leaf economic traits and trait relationships by climate. Global Ecology and Biogeography 14: 411-421.
90. Xiong Y, Li QK. 1987. Soil of China, 2nd edn. Beijing: Science Press.
91. Yin LJ, Li MR. 1997. A study on the geographical distribution and ecology of C4 plants in China: C4 plants distribution in climatic conditions. Acta Ecologica Sinica 17: 350-363 (in Chinese with English abstract).
92. Yin LJ, Wang P. 1997. Distribution of C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathways of plants on the steppe of Northeastern China. Acta Ecologica Sinica 17: 113-123 (in Chinese with English abstract).