Foliar carbon isotope discrimination and related traits along light gradients in two different functional-type tree spec
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Foliar carbon isotope discrimination and related traits along light gradients in two different functional-type tree species Mingcai Li • Jiaojun Zhu • Min Zhang
Received: 15 January 2013 / Revised: 30 June 2013 / Accepted: 26 July 2013 / Published online: 4 August 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract To understand how different plant functional types respond to light intensities, foliar carbon isotope discrimination (D13C) and related traits, i.e., specific leaf area (SLA), mass- and area-based nitrogen concentrations (Nmass and Narea), leaf dry mass content (LDMC) of two evergreen coniferous and three deciduous broad-leaved species, were measured under four light intensities. Foliar D13C and SLA increased significantly from full- to low-light conditions for all species. These indicate that species studied could increase their light capture capacity under low-light conditions, leading to lower water-use efficiency (higher 13C discrimination). There were significant differences in the responses of foliar Nmass or Narea to light variations in the two functional types, indicating that different functional-type tree species may have different N-use strategies to adapt to the light variations. It was found that there were large functional-typedependent differences with regard to the relationships
between foliar D13C and other leaf traits. Our findings suggest that all tree species could change foliar morphology to increase their light-harvesting ability under low-light conditions at the expense of decreasing their water-use efficiency. However, large differences in N-use strategy may exist between deciduous and evergreen species, which may be vital for the survival of these two functional-type tree species in a shaded understory. More important, our findings reveal that changes in D13C are not directly related to foliar N if N investment does not proportionally increase the photosynthetic capacity; this should be considered when exploring the relationships of nitrogen concentrations with D13C. Keywords D13C Foliar traits Light intensities Functional type Temperate forest
Introduction Communicated by R. Matyssek. M. Li J. Zhu (&) M. Zhang State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, People’s Republic of China e-mail: [email protected] M. Li e-mail: [email protected] M. Li J. Zhu M. Zhang Qingyuan Experimental Station of Forest Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, People’s Republic of China Present Address: J. Zhu Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang 110016, People’s Republic of China
In recent years, the carbon isotope ratio (d13C) of organic matter (including leaf and wood tissues) has emerged as a useful tool for examining the balance between net photosynthesis and stomatal conductance (Farquhar et al. 1982, 1989). Spatial and temporal changes in environmental factors (e.g., light, relative humidity, tempera
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