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Primary and Secondary Metabolite Profiles of Lodgepole Pine Trees Change with Elevation, but Not with Latitude

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Abstract

Climate change has a large influence on plant functional and phenotypic traits including plant primary and secondary metabolites. One well-established approach to investigating the variation in plant metabolites involves studying plant populations along elevation and latitude gradients. We considered how two space-for-time climate change gradients (elevation and latitude) influence carbohydrate reserves (soluble sugars, starches) and secondary metabolites (monoterpenes, diterpene resin acids) of lodgepole pine trees in western Canada. We were particularly interested in the relationship of terpenes and carbohydrates with a wide range of tree, site, and climatic factors. We found that only elevation had a strong influence on the expression of both terpenes and carbohydrates of trees. Specifically, as elevation increased, concentrations of monoterpenes and diterpenes generally increased and soluble sugars (glucose, sucrose, total sugars) decreased. In contrast, latitude had no impact on either of terpenes or carbohydrates. Furthermore, we found a positive relationship between concentrations of starch and total terpenes and diterpenes in the elevation study; whereas neither starches nor sugars were correlated to terpenes in the latitude study. Similarly, both terpenes and carbohydrates had a much greater number of significant correlations to site characteristics such as slope, basal area index, and sand basal area, in the elevational than in the latitude study. Overall, these results support the conclusion that both biotic and abiotic factors likely drive the patterns of primary and secondary metabolite profiles of lodgepole pine along geographical gradients. Also, presence of a positive relationship between terpenes and starches suggests an interaction between primary ad secondary metabolites of lodgepole pine trees.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Alberta Agriculture and Forestry and Parks Canada for their help for site selection. Field work was conducted by Gail Classens. We acknowledge the Associate Editor of the Journal of Chemical Ecology, Dr. Ann E Hagerman’s and two anonymous reviewers’ contributions to improve the quality of this manuscript during review process. We acknowledge that all research presented in the manuscript was conducted in accordance with all applicable laws and rules set forth by the provincial (Alberta) and federal governments and the University of Alberta, and that all necessary permits were in hand when the research was conducted.

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by NSERC-Discovery Award to NE, the Alberta Conservation Association ‘ACA Grants in Biodiversity Program’, and Government of Alberta ‘Master’s level Queen Elizabeth II-Graduate Scholarship’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 442 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Melanie Mullin, J. G. Klutsch, J. A. Cale, A. Hussain, S. Zhao & Nadir Erbilgin

  2. Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, 9920 108 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5K 2M4, Canada

    C. Whitehouse

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  1. Melanie Mullin
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  2. J. G. Klutsch
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  3. J. A. Cale
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  4. A. Hussain
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  5. S. Zhao
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  6. C. Whitehouse
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  7. Nadir Erbilgin
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Contributions

NE and MM conceived the research project. MM designed and performed the studies and ran chemical and statistical analyses. AH and CW assisted in site selection, and data analyses. JK and JAC assisted in experimental design and running chemical analyses. JGK and SZ provided statistical advice. MM and NE wrote the manuscript; all authors provided editorial advice.

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Correspondence to Nadir Erbilgin.

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Mullin, M., Klutsch, J.G., Cale, J.A. et al. Primary and Secondary Metabolite Profiles of Lodgepole Pine Trees Change with Elevation, but Not with Latitude. J Chem Ecol 47, 280–293 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-021-01249-y

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