Abstract
Six perennial herbs (Plantago asiatica, Polygonum viviparum, Anaphalis lactea, Kobresia humilis, Leontopodium nanum and Potentilla chinensis) widely distributed in alpine meadows were reciprocally transplanted at two sites in eastern edge of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Hongyuan (3434 m, 2.97 °C, 911 mm) and Qilian (3701 m, 2.52 °C, 472 mm), aiming to evaluate the responses of alpine plants to changing environments. When plants were transplanted from Hongyuan to Qilian, most plant species showed a decrease of total wax coverage in first year and reverse trend was observed for some plant species in second year. However, when plants were transplanted from Qilian to Hongyuan, the response of total wax coverage differed greatly between plant species. When compared with those in first year, plasticity index of average chain length of alkane decreased whereas carbon preference index of alkane increased at both Hongyuan and Qilian in second year. The total wax coverage differed between local and transplanted plants, suggesting both environmental and genetic factors controlled the wax depositions. Structural equation modeling indicated that co-variations existed between leaf cuticular waxes and leaf functional traits. These results suggest that alpine herbs adjust both wax depositions and chain length distributions to adapt to changing environment, showing climate adaptations.
Highlights
Alpine grasslands are currently facing great challenges from global climate change, which alters the surroundings suitable for plants
The leaf traits of alpine meadow plants showed great variations between years, plant species, experimental sites and transplanting (Table 1), suggesting that plant would adjust its functional traits to adapt to the changing climate conditions
We mainly explored how the leaf cuticular waxes of alpine meadow plants responded to the quick environment changes induced by reciprocal transplanting
Summary
Alpine grasslands are currently facing great challenges from global climate change, which alters the surroundings suitable for plants. Such changes in turn let the plants adjust themselves to actual or expected climate, showing climate adaptation [1]. Its ability of adaptation can be influenced by both intraspecific variation (genotype or genetic difference) and the environment [2,3]. The phenotypic plasticity is the ability of individual to develop different phenotypes in various environments, resulting into intraspecific variations [2,4]. The phenotypic plasticity of cuticular waxes of alpine plants under climate change is still unclear
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