TY - JOUR
T1 - Divergent coupling mechanism of precipitation on plant community multifunction across alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau
AU - Liu, Miao
AU - Li, Yang
AU - Sun, Le
AU - Du, Ziyin
AU - Li, Wencheng
AU - Zhang, Lin
AU - Wang, Jinniu
AU - Chen, Ji
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 Liu, Li, Sun, Du, Li, Zhang, Wang and Chen.
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - Introduction: It is essential to understand plant adaptive strategies on plant stoichiometric traits at the species level rather than at the community level under various environmental conditions across the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Methods: Here, plant community function and edaphic and meteorological factors were collected at 111 sites along an extensive water–heat gradient during the peak growing season in 2015. Community-weighted mean trait (CWM) was introduced to illuminating dynamics of the functional trait at the community level. Results: Our results indicated that plant functional traits, including CWM-leaf total carbon (CWM_LTC), CWM-leaf total nitrogen (CWM_LTN), and CWM-leaf total phosphorus (CWM_LTP), showed similar and comparatively marked increases from alpine meadow (AM) to alpine steppe (AS). Moreover, since the tightly coordinated variation among each plant functional trait of AM was higher than that of AS, a more stable coupling mechanism of these plant functional traits could be observed in AM under a long-term evolutionary habit. Specifically, there was higher annual mean precipitation (AMP) in AM than that in AS significantly (P < 0.01), and AMP was significantly correlated with soil moisture and soil total phosphorus in AM. Generally, our findings suggest that precipitation determines divergent coupling plant community function in both AS and AM.
AB - Introduction: It is essential to understand plant adaptive strategies on plant stoichiometric traits at the species level rather than at the community level under various environmental conditions across the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Methods: Here, plant community function and edaphic and meteorological factors were collected at 111 sites along an extensive water–heat gradient during the peak growing season in 2015. Community-weighted mean trait (CWM) was introduced to illuminating dynamics of the functional trait at the community level. Results: Our results indicated that plant functional traits, including CWM-leaf total carbon (CWM_LTC), CWM-leaf total nitrogen (CWM_LTN), and CWM-leaf total phosphorus (CWM_LTP), showed similar and comparatively marked increases from alpine meadow (AM) to alpine steppe (AS). Moreover, since the tightly coordinated variation among each plant functional trait of AM was higher than that of AS, a more stable coupling mechanism of these plant functional traits could be observed in AM under a long-term evolutionary habit. Specifically, there was higher annual mean precipitation (AMP) in AM than that in AS significantly (P < 0.01), and AMP was significantly correlated with soil moisture and soil total phosphorus in AM. Generally, our findings suggest that precipitation determines divergent coupling plant community function in both AS and AM.
KW - alpine meadow
KW - alpine steppe
KW - community-weighted mean trait
KW - ecological stoichiometry
KW - leaf functional traits
KW - transect
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147351008&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpls.2022.1122140
DO - 10.3389/fpls.2022.1122140
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 36743555
AN - SCOPUS:85147351008
SN - 1664-462X
VL - 13
JO - Frontiers in Plant Science
JF - Frontiers in Plant Science
M1 - 1122140
ER -