Abstract
Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) play important roles in adapting to environments in plants. Despite extensive research on the seasonal dynamics and species differences of NSC, the relative contributions of season and species to NSC is not well understood. We measured the concentration of starch, soluble sugar, NSC, and the soluble sugar:starch ratio in leaves, twigs, trunks and roots of twenty dominant species for dry and wet season in monsoon broad-leaved evergreen forest, respectively. The majority of concentration of NSC and starch in the roots, and the leaves contained the highest concentration of soluble sugar. A seasonal variation in starch and NSC concentrations higher in the dry season. Conversely, the wet season samples had higher concentration of soluble sugar and the sugar:starch ratio. Significant differences exist for starch, soluble sugar and NSC concentrations and the sugar:starch ratio across species. Most species had higher starch and NSC concentrations in the dry season and higher soluble sugar concentration and the sugar:starch ratio in wet season. Repeated variance analysis showed that starch and NSC concentrations were strongly affected by season although the effect of seasons, species, and the interaction of the two on the starch, soluble sugar, and NSC concentrations were significant.
Highlights
Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) are the primary photosynthates and the key regulators of the physiological adjustment of plants to environmental stress[1,2,3,4]
These hypotheses were tested by seasonally measuring NSC and its component concentrations in leaves, twigs, trunks and roots of twenty of the most abundant species growing in the subtropical monsoon broad-leaved evergreen forest of Yunnan Province, China
The largest soluble sugar concentration was found to be in the leaves, closely followed by twigs and roots, and lastly trunks; there were no significant differences between twigs and roots (p > 0.05)
Summary
Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) are the primary photosynthates and the key regulators of the physiological adjustment of plants to environmental stress[1,2,3,4]. NSC seasonal dynamics and species differences in tropical, temperate and Mediterranean forests ecosystems have been studied, the effect of season and species on NSC have not been well characterized in subtropical forests ecosystems. We hypothesize that the NSC in the subtropical monsoon broad-leaved evergreen forest exhibits the greatest seasonal changes due to seasonal precipitation reduction. We hypothesize that: (1) greatest species fluctuations in NSC concentrations will occur, and (2) the effect of season on the NSC will be higher than species because all species are affected by the season These hypotheses were tested by seasonally measuring NSC and its component concentrations in leaves, twigs, trunks and roots of twenty of the most abundant species growing in the subtropical monsoon broad-leaved evergreen forest of Yunnan Province, China. The repeated measures analysis of variance was used to distinguish the effect of season and species on NSC, which allows for a more detailed picture of the effect of season and species on NSC
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