New field wind manipulation methodology reveals adaptive responses of steppe plants to increased and reduced wind speed

Shudong Zhang,Zhenying Huang,Xuehua Ye,Johannes H C Cornelissen,Guofang Liu,Qingguo Cui

doi:10.1186/s13007-020-00705-2

Abstract

BackgroundWind strongly impacts plant growth, leaf traits, biomass allocation, and stem mechanical properties. However, whether there are common whole-plant wind responses among different plant species is still unclear. We tested this null hypothesis by exposing four eudicot steppe species to three different wind treatments in a field experiment: reduced wind velocity using windbreaks, ambient wind velocity, and enhanced wind velocity through a novel methodology using wind-funneling baffles.ResultsAcross the four species, wind generally decreased plant height, projected crown area, and stepwise bifurcation ratio, and increased root length and stem base diameter. In contrast, the response patterns of shoot traits, especially mechanical properties, to wind velocity were idiosyncratic among species. There was no significant difference in total biomass among different treatments; this might be because the negative effects on heat dissipation and photosynthesis of low wind speed during hot periods, could counteract positive effects during favorable cooler periods.ConclusionsThere are common wind response patterns in plant-size-related traits across different steppe species, while the response patterns in shoot traits vary among species. This indicates the species-specific ways by which plants balance growth and mechanical support facing wind stress. Our new field wind manipulation methodology was effective in altering wind speed with the intended magnitude. Especially, our field wind-funneling baffle system showed a great potential for use in future field wind velocity enhancement. Further experiments are needed to reveal how negative and positive effects play out on whole-plant performance in response to different wind regimes, which is important as ongoing global climatic changes involve big changes in wind regimes.

Highlights

Wind strongly impacts plant growth, leaf traits, biomass allocation, and stem mechanical properties
The temporally matched relationship between the hourly maximum wind velocity in the CK and I showed that our wind funnel design had potential to accelerate wind flow reaching the velocity calculated by the ideal model (Fig. 2d)
The temporally matched relationship between the hourly maximum wind velocity in the CK and D reflected the effect of the wind breaks on decreasing wind velocity

Summary

Introduction

Wind strongly impacts plant growth, leaf traits, biomass allocation, and stem mechanical properties. In some specific areas (e.g. coastal dunes, inland arid and semi-arid dunes), sand movement caused by strong wind is a common environmental agent affecting plants [20,21,22,23,24]. In these habitats, plants may face stress caused by soil losses or sand burial under wind erosion. Moderate sand burial may improve soil water and nutrient conditions and moderate the temperature fluctuation around plant roots, which may benefit plant growth [29]

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Conclusion