Understanding the effects of climate change, in particular, climate extremes on plant functional traits can provide a mechanistic basis for predicting how plant communities may be altered in the future. Here, we focused on a dominant species in Inner-Mongolia typical temperate steppe, Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvei, to examine the responses of plant functional traits to experimentally imposed extreme drought at three sites along an aridity gradient. When comparing the driest (high aridity) to the wettest sites (low aridity), plant height, leaf dry matter content and C-13 (water use efficiency) were increased at the intermediate and low aridity sites, whereas specific leaf area and leaf nitrogen content were reduced at the high-aridity site. When extreme drought (66% reduction in the growing season precipitation) was experimentally imposed at all sites, plant height decreased and C-13 of L. chinensis increased at the intermediate and low aridity sites. The extreme drought of 66% precipitation reduction also increased leaf dry matter content in high- and low-aridity sites. Compared to the control (ambient precipitation), extreme drought increased the strength of the positive association between plant height and C-13, as well as the negative associations of specific leaf area with plant height and leaf dry matter content. Thus, extreme drought altered key functional traits of the dominant grass of Inner Mongolia steppe, particularly at the low-aridity site where the drought decreased plant size and increased water use efficiency and affected relationships between these traits.
1.Chinese Acad Sci, Northwest Inst Ecoenvironm & Resources, Urat Desert Grassland Res Stn, 320 Donggang West Rd, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, Peoples R China 2.Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China 3.Chinese Acad Agr Sci, Inst Agr Resources & Reg Planning, Natl Hulunber Grassland Ecosyst Observat & Res St, Beijing 100081, Peoples R China 4.Lanzhou Univ, Coll Pastoral Agr Sci & Technol, State Key Lab Grassland Agroecosyst, Lanzhou 730020, Gansu, Peoples R China 5.Colorado State Univ, Grad Degree Program Ecol, Dept Biol, Ft Collins, CO 80523 USA
Recommended Citation:
Yue, Xiyuan,Zuo, Xiaoan,Yu, Qiang,et al. Response of plant functional traits of Leymus chinensis to extreme drought in Inner Mongolia grasslands[J]. PLANT ECOLOGY,2019-01-01,220(2):141-149