Do Bryophyte Elemental Concentrations Explain Their Morphological Traits?

Marcos Fernández-Martínez,Jordi Corbera,Oriol Cano-Rocabayera,Francesc Sabater,Catherine Preece

doi:10.3390/plants10081581

Marcos Fernández-Martínez, Jordi Corbera + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10081581

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Abstract

Differences in the elemental composition of plants, mainly C, N, and P, have been shown to be related to differences in their nutritional status, and their morphological and functional traits. The relationship between morphological traits and micronutrients and trace elements, however, has been much less studied. Additionally, in bryophytes, research devoted to investigating these relationships is still very scarce. Here, we analysed 80 samples from 29 aquatic and semi-aquatic (hygrophytic) moss species living in Mediterranean springs to investigate the relationship between moss nutrient concentrations and their micro- and macroscopic morphological traits and growth forms. We found that, across species, the elemental concentration of mosses was more tightly linked to macroscopic traits than to microscopic traits. Growth forms could also be successfully explained by the concentration of elements in mosses. Apart from macronutrients and their stoichiometric ratios (C:N, C:P, and N:P), micronutrients and trace elements were also important variables predicting moss morphological traits and growth forms. Additionally, our results showed that microscopic traits were well related to macroscopic traits. Overall, our results clearly indicate that the elemental composition of mosses can be used to infer their morphological traits, and that elements other than macronutrients should be taken into account to achieve a good representation of their morphological and, potentially, functional traits when comparing the elemental composition across species.

Highlights

Bryophytes are amongst the most fascinating organisms of the plant kingdom, given their ecology, physiology, and morphology
Our analyses showed that moss elemental composition could explain variability in Our analyses showed that moss could in morphological traits reasonably well elemental for six outcomposition of seven traits: leafexplain length,variability width, area morphological traits reasonably well for six out of seven traits: leaf length, width, area and form, moss mass per area (MMA), and density (Figure 4)
Our exploratory analyses indicated thatthere therewere were clear differences in elementhe eleOur exploratory analyses indicated that clear differences in the mentomes of the different species, enabling the classification of different groups of species tomes of the different species, enabling the classification of different groups of species depending on their elementome similarity

Summary

Introduction

Bryophytes are amongst the most fascinating organisms of the plant kingdom, given their ecology, physiology, and morphology. Their lack of true cuticles and roots make them very sensitive to environmental conditions [1], and those features make them well suited to monitoring changes in environmental conditions. Bryophytes have been used to assess the ecological consequences of air and water pollution (e.g., nitrate or heavy metals) [2,3,4,5,6,7] Their elemental composition under normal conditions, and how it is related to their functioning, have been seldom explored, despite a few studies focused on bryophyte C, N, and P or macronutrient concentrations [8,9,10,11,12]. Information on the elemental composition of bryophytes is lacking for a large array of micronutrients and trace elements, from non-polluted areas

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