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Phylogenetically balanced evidence for structural and carbon isotope responses in plants along elevational gradients

  • Physiological ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

We tested three hypotheses related to the functioning of mountain plants, namely their reproductive effort, leaf surface structure and effectiveness of CO2 assimilation, using archive material from contrasting elevations. Analysis of elevational trends is at risk of suffering from two major biases: a phylogenetic bias (i.e. an elevational change in the abundance of taxonomic groups), and covariation of different environmental drivers (e.g. water, temperature, atmospheric pressure), which do not permit a mechanistic interpretation. We solved both problems in a subcontinental survey of elevational trends in key plant traits in the European Alps and the high Arctic (northern Sweden, Svalbard), using herbarium samples of 147 species belonging to the genera Carex, Saxifraga and Potentilla. We used both species and phylogenetically independent contrasts as data points. The analysis revealed enhanced reproductive efforts at higher elevation in insect-pollinated taxa (not in wind-pollinated taxa), no increase in leaf pubescence at high elevation (as is often assumed), and a strong correlation between 13C discrimination and elevation. Alpine taxa operate at a smaller mesophyll resistance to CO2 uptake relative to diffusive resistance (stomata). By comparison with congeneric low altitude polar taxa (low temperature, but high atmospheric pressure), the response could be attributed to the elevational decline in atmospheric pressure rather than temperature (a mean increase in δ13C by 1.4‰ km−1). The signal is consistent within and across genera and within species, suggesting rapid adjustment of leaf physiology to reduced partial pressure of CO2. These results offer answers to long-debated issues of plant responses to high elevation life conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Heinz Schneider, the curator of the Institute of Botany Herbarium in Basel, for advice, and the Basel Botanical Society for permitting us to co-sample their collections. We thank Inger Alsos and Allan Bursas from Unis, Longyearbyen (Svalbard) for helping with samples from their herbarium. Jürg Stöcklin, Basel, made the Carex collections in northern Sweden. He, and two anonymous experts, and the handling editor Kouki Hikosaka provided most helpful comments. We also acknowledge laboratory and logistic help by Eva Spehn, Matthias Saurer, Martin Krnoul, Susanna Pelaez-Riedl and Olivier Bignucolo. The China Scholarship Council supported the first author during the visiting scholarship at the University of Basel that led to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Natural Resources, Renmin University of China, 100872, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Yuan Zhu

  2. Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232, Villigen, Switzerland

    Rolf T. W. Siegwolf

  3. Department of Community Ecology (BZF), UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Strasse 4, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Walter Durka

  4. Institute of Botany, University of Basel, 4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Christian Körner

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  1. Yuan Zhu
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  2. Rolf T. W. Siegwolf
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  3. Walter Durka
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  4. Christian Körner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuan Zhu.

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Communicated by Kouki Hikosaka.

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Zhu, Y., Siegwolf, R.T.W., Durka, W. et al. Phylogenetically balanced evidence for structural and carbon isotope responses in plants along elevational gradients. Oecologia 162, 853–863 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1515-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1515-6

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