Abstract
Research highlights: Water transport and CO2 diffusion are two important processes that determine the CO2 assimilation efficiency in leaves. The integration of leaf economic and hydraulic traits will help to present a more comprehensive view of the succession of woody plants in arid regions. However, studies on hydraulic traits of plants from different successional stages are still rare compared to that on economic traits in arid regions. Materials and methods: We selected 31 species from shrub stage, pioneer tree stage and late successional stage on the Loess Plateau, and measured five economic traits and five hydraulic traits of these species. Results: We found species from the pioneer tree stage exhibited "fast-growing" characteristics with high maximum net photosynthesis rate (Pmax) and vein density (VD). Species from the late successional stage exhibited "slow-growing" characteristics with low Pmax and VD. Economic traits showed no significant differences among the three stages except for Pmax. Hydraulic traits, such as VD, leaf area to sapwood area ratio and vessel frequency, exhibited significant differences among different stages. Conclusions: Hydraulics may play an important role in the succession of woody plants in arid regions. Hydraulic traits and Pmax, should be combined to investigate succession of woody plants in future studies. The "fast-growing" characteristics of pioneer trees and "slow-growing" characteristics of late successional trees may induce the succession of woody plants.
Highlights
The majority of the Earth’s forests are currently undergoing secondary succession [1]
Pearson correlation analysis indicated that vein density (VD) was positively related to Pmax, leaf dry mass per area (LMA) and leaf thickness (LT)
A positive correlation was found between turgor loss point (TLP) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) according to phylogenetically independent contrasts (PICs)
Summary
The majority of the Earth’s forests are currently undergoing secondary succession [1]. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms that drive succession could help mitigate the losses of biodiversity and ecosystem function [2]. Trait-based approaches are helping to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms that drive community assembly and successional dynamics [3]. Plant functional traits are key biological characteristics to classify plant groups according to their responses to environmental factors [6,7,8]. Among various traits, those related to light capture and carbon economy have received most attention and form the leaf economic traits, such as leaf maximum photosynthetic capacity, leaf dry mass per area and leaf nitrogen concentration [9]. Other groups of traits related to water demand and supply form
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