Relationship between plant leaf functional traits and soil factors at different succession stages in karst forest of Maolan

Abstract

How plants change functional traists to adapt to the environment has always been the focus of ecology. In order to explore the adaptive strategies of plant leaves at different succession stages in karst forest of Maolan, taking the dominant species in five different succession stages (herb, shrub, shrub-arbor, arbor and climax community stages) in Maolan Nature Reserve as the research object, the leaf functional properties and soil physical and chemical properties of dominant plants at different succession stages were measured. The results were as follows: (1) With the succession of vegetation, soil total nitrogen (STN) content, soil organic matter (SOM) content and soil water (SWC) content gradually increased, soil total phosphorus (STP) content and soil total potassium (STK) content first increased and then decreased, and soil pH value showed a decreasing trend as a whole. (2) With the succession of vegetation, leaf area (LA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf thickness (LT) and leaf carbon content (LCC) gradually increased. On the contrary, specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf potassium content (LKC), leaf nitrogen content (LNC) increased first and then decreased, and leaf phosphorus content (LPC) decreased first and then increased. (3) Redundant analysis showed that plants were mainly distributed in the soil environment of high pH and relatively low STK, STP, SWC, SOM and STN at the early succession stage. Plant leaves in the community took high SLA, LNC and LPC, and low LA, LDMC, LT and LWC. Plants at the late succession stage were mainly distributed in the soil environment of high moisture and nutrients. LDMC, LT, LA and LWC showed an upward trend compared with the early succession stage, and SLA, LNC and LPC showed a downward trend compared with the early succession stage. In conclusion, with the forward succession of vegetation, plants adapt to the environment by changing functional traits, and leaf functional traits change from open strategy in the early succession stage to conservative strategy in the late succession stage.

Keywords

• karst forest
• succession stage
• leaf functional traits
• soil factors
• ecological strategy