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Productive leaf functional traits of Chinese savanna species

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Abstract

The river valleys in Southwest China are characterized by a dry–hot climate and relatively rich soils, and host valley-type savannas that are dominated by deciduous species. However, little is known about the ecological adaptations of Chinese savanna plants to the local environments. We hypothesize that Chinese savanna species mainly possess a drought-avoiding strategy by having a deciduous leaf habit and have productive leaf traits. To test this hypothesis, we measured 26 anatomical, morphological, physiological, and chemical traits for 33 woody species from a valley savanna in Southwest China and compared them with the literature data of other dry and wet tropical tree species and a global dataset. We found that Chinese savanna species showed drought avoidance adaptations and exhibited productive leaf traits, such as thin and dense leaves with high ratio of palisade to spongy mesophyll, leaf nutrient concentrations and photosynthetic capacity. Correlations of photosynthetic capacity with N, P, and stomatal conductance across Chinese savanna species were consistent with global patterns reported for seed plants. However, the Chinese savanna species had consistently greater carbon gain at a given specific leaf area, N, P, and stomatal conductance, suggesting higher nutrient- and intrinsic water use efficiencies. These results suggest that paradoxically, Chinese savanna species are adapted to the stressful dry–hot valley habitat by having productive leaves.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Biogeochemistry Laboratory of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden for the analyses of soil and foliar nutrient concentrations and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that significantly improved this manuscript. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30900174, 90302013), and by West Light Foundation of Chinese Academy of Sciences to JLZ.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, Yunnan, China

    Jiao-Lin Zhang & Kun-Fang Cao

  2. Yuanjiang Dry-Hot-Valley Ecological Station, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuanjiang, 653300, Yunnan, China

    Kun-Fang Cao

  3. Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    L. Poorter

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  1. Jiao-Lin Zhang
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Correspondence to Kun-Fang Cao.

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Zhang, JL., Poorter, L. & Cao, KF. Productive leaf functional traits of Chinese savanna species. Plant Ecol 213, 1449–1460 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-012-0103-8

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