Characteristics and Relationships of Foliar Element Content and Specific Leaf Volume of Alpine Plant Functional Groups

摘要

Alpine plants grow in stressful environments with seasonal water shortages, strong ultraviolet and low temperatures. Understanding the characteristics of plant functional traits and their relationship with environmental factors is foundational to recognizing the ecological strategies and adaptive characteristics of plants. In this study, we selected and analyzed 38 alpine species in the Zoige Plateau, a part of the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Next, we simultaneously measured 14 functional traits such as δ13C value, foliar C, N, and P element total content, relative water content, specific leaf area (SLA) and specific leaf volume (SLV). A comparison was made using three plant functional groups divided based on water availability, growth form and life form. The results show that the average total contents of foliar C, N, and P were 47.9%, 23.1 mg g?1 and 1.5 mg g?1 for alpine shrubs, and 43.7%, 20.0 mg g?1, 1.3 mg g?1 for herbs, respectively. The SLV of alpine plants had a highly significant positive correlation (P<0.01) to foliar N and P content, total water content, dry mass water content and relative water content. In addition, SLV had a significant positive correlation (P<0.05) to SLA. Among the studied plant leaf functional traits, SLV best characterized the differences in alpine plant groups.