Response of Functional Traits of Ammopiptanthus mongolicus to Soil Moisture
Plant functional traits are important quantitative indicators of resource allocation and sur-vival and reproduction,reflecting their response and adaptation mechanisms to environmental chan-ges.In this paper,we investigated the response of resource allocation to different soil moisture dur-ing growth,development and reproduction of Ammopiptanthus mongolicus in two habitats:fixed sand and gravelly sand,by determining the individual morphology,functional traits of leaf blades,and the number of flowers and floral structure of A.mongolicus.The results showed that(1)the basal diameter,crown width and above-ground biomass of A.mongolicus on gravelly sand were significant-ly larger than those on fixed sand(P＜0.05)due to the differences in soil moisture content.(2)Leaf area,leaf volume,and leaf tissue density of A.mongolicus were significantly different under different soil moisture conditions(P＜0.05);specific leaf area,leaf fresh weight,and leaf dry weight were highly significant(P＜0.01).(3)Under the habitat with low soil moisture content,plant specific leaf area was significantly and positively correlated with leaf area and leaf volume(P＜0.05),and highly significantly and negatively correlated with leaf tissue density(P＜0.001);un-der the condition of sufficient soil moisture,leaf shape index was significantly and negatively correla-ted with leaf area(P＜0.01).Under heterogeneous habitats,leaf dry matter content was all signifi-cantly negatively correlated with leaf water content(P＜0.05),while it was significantly positively correlated with water saturation deficit and leaf surface(P＜0.001).(4)The number of flowers,petal length and calyx size of A.mongolicus decreased in habitats with low soil moisture content,and the number of flowers were all highly significantly positively correlated with crown width and a-bove-ground biomass in heterogeneous habitats(P＜0.001).In conclusion,A.mongolicus adapted to the arid environment by decreasing individual size,decreasing leaf area and increasing specific leaf area,leaf tissue density,and decreasing flower number,and the functional traits were closely related to the plant utilization of resources,which reflected its life-history adaptive strategy in hetero-geneous habitats.
Ammopiptanthus mongolicussoil moistureindividual sizeleaf functional traitsrepro-ductive allocationlife history strategies
万方数据
维普
