Abstract
Plant stoichiometry varies mainly with environment and taxonomic affiliation (genetics). Understanding how environment and genetics regulate plant stoichiometry would help us to better understand stoichiometric homeostasis. Recent studies quantified the effect of environment and genetics on plant stoichiometry for multispecies over a large scale, but few studied the effect within a given species. Provenance tests are best suited to study the effect of environment (site) and genetics (provenance) on stoichiometry and assess the homeostasis for a given species. We determined leaf N and P concentrations for 29 Quercusacutissima provenances, from across the distribution in China, grown in three common gardens with different environments. Compared to the statistically insignificant provenance effect, site effect was large and statistically significant for leaf N and P stoichiometry (P < 0.05), with 43.47, 44.04, and 59.38 % of the total variations accounted for leaf N and P concentrations and N/P ratio, respectively. Meanwhile, the slopes of SMA (Standardized Major Axis) for leaf N concentration and N/P ratio, and leaf P concentration and N/P ratio, remained similar among the sites. Our results suggest that leaf N and P stoichiometry is mainly impacted by environment for a given species, and relative stability of leaf stoichiometric relationships is found independent of site environment, which supports stoichiometric homeostasis.
Published Version
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