Abstract
Understanding the geographic patterns and potential drivers of leaf stoichiometry is critical for modelling the nutrient fluxes of ecosystems and to predict the responses of ecosystems to global changes. This study aimed to explore the altitudinal patterns and potential drivers of leaf C∶N∶P stoichiometry. We measured the concentrations of leaf C, N and P in 175 plant species as well as soil nutrient concentrations along an altitudinal transect (500–2300 m) on the northern slope of Changbai Mountain, China to explore the response of leaf C∶N∶P stoichiometry to plant growth form (PGF), climate and soil. Leaf C, N, P and C∶N∶P ratios showed significant altitudinal trends. In general, leaf C and C∶N∶P ratios increased while leaf N and P decreased with elevation. Woody and herbaceous species showed different responses to altitudinal gradients. Trees had the largest variation in leaf C, C∶N and C∶P ratios, while herbs showed the largest variation in leaf N, P and N∶P ratio. PGF, climate and soil jointly regulated leaf stoichiometry, explaining 17.6% to 52.1% of the variation in the six leaf stoichiometric traits. PGF was more important in explaining leaf stoichiometry variation than soil and climate. Our findings will help to elucidate the altitudinal patterns of leaf stoichiometry and to model ecosystem nutrient cycling.
Highlights
Understanding the spatial patterns and the controlling factors for leaf C:N:P stoichiometry is critical for elucidating the patterns of nutrient fluxes across ecological gradients and the response of vegetation to global change [1,2,3,4]
Among leaf C, N, and P concentrations, leaf P had the greatest variation with a coefficients of variation (CV) of 0.35, whereas leaf C had the smallest variation (CV = 0.08), which resulted in C:P having the greatest variation (CV = 0.43) and N:P having the smallest (CV = 0.28) (Table 2)
Leaf N and P were remarkably higher in herbaceous species than in woody species, whereas leaf C and C:N:P ratios were higher in trees and shrubs than in herbs (Table 2)
Summary
Understanding the spatial patterns and the controlling factors for leaf C:N:P stoichiometry is critical for elucidating the patterns of nutrient fluxes across ecological gradients and the response of vegetation to global change [1,2,3,4]. The latitudinal patterns of leaf stoichiometry have been widely investigated at regional [5,6,7,8,9] and global scales [2,10], and some general biogeographic patterns have been uncovered. Variations in leaf stoichiometry along altitudinal gradients have met with ambiguous results. Subtropical mountains and subarctic tundra suggest that leaf N and P declined with altitude [15,16,17,18]. Intensive studies are required to obtain a more general representation of the altitudinal patterns of leaf stoichiometry
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