Abstract
The allometric relationship among different functional traits is an ecological strategy for plants to promote resource utilization, which indicates the ability of plants to adapt to environmental changes coordinately. In this study, we conducted a field survey on Haloxylon ammodendron and H. persicum among different terrains (dune crest, eastern slope, western slope and inter-dune) in the Gurbantunggut Desert, obtained their quantitative and morphological characteristics, and analyzed their allometric relationships between plant height and canopy radius, plant height and basal diameter by using standardized major axis estimation. We found that: (1) The dominated terrains of H. ammodendron and H. persicum were different; (2) The individual morphology of the two Haloxylon species changed significantly with the terrains (p < 0.05), with the largest and smallest ones growing on the eastern slope and the inter-dune lowland, respectively; (3) Fixed allometric patterns were observed in the above-ground parts of the two Haloxylon species, as the growth of canopy and basal stem was preferentially to plant height; (4) These allometric relationships were significantly affected by the terrain, and exhibited discrepancy between two species, they both invested less in plant height in windy habitats, such as the dune crest and western slope, but H. ammodendron growing on the western slope and H. persicum growing on the eastern slope invested more in basal diameter for strengthening mechanical support and resources acquisition, respectively. These results indicated that both studied species adopted an ecological strategy that allocating more resources to horizontal expansion rather than vertical growth, the terrain has an important influence on the allometric relationship of their above-ground parts, and the trade-off mechanism of main components investing was different for these two species due to habitat heterogeneity and ecological adaptability.
Highlights
The resources such as nutrients and water as well as carbohydrates obtained by plants through photosynthesis and root absorption determine their life processes such as survival, growth, and reproduction (Allen et al, 2008; Chen et al, 2013; Jennifer et al, 2019)
There were significant differences in stand density of H. ammodendron among different terrains (F = 27.90, p < 0.05), which were in the order of interdune lowland > western slope > eastern slope > dune crest
The density difference of H. persicum between the dune crest and inter-dune lowland was significant (p < 0.05), there was no difference among the other terrains, and the young tree always occupied a larger proportion at each terrain (Figure 4)
Summary
The resources such as nutrients and water as well as carbohydrates obtained by plants through photosynthesis and root absorption determine their life processes such as survival, growth, and reproduction (Allen et al, 2008; Chen et al, 2013; Jennifer et al, 2019). Since the resources that plants could obtain are limited, the resource distribution among various physiological/ecological functions often appears conflicting (Ogden, 1974; Liu and Ma, 2015) These conflicting resource requirements determine that plants need to balance among different functional traits, and allometric scaling is one of the most direct manifestations of such balance (Weiner, 2004). With changing environment, plant biomass distributes differently in different vegetative organs (e.g., roots, stems, and leaves) or reproductive organs (e.g., flowers, fruits, and seeds), and varies between above- and below-ground parts (Cheng et al, 2014; Zhang and Peng, 2018; Chen et al, 2020; Sun et al, 2021; Zheng et al, 2021). Allometric scaling has been proven to be an valid theory for describing the proportional relationship among plant morphological characteristics since it was first proposed, and it has been widely used because it can reveal the relationship between the size and physiological attributes of plant individuals (West et al, 1997; Lu et al, 2007; Han and Fang, 2008)
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