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Traits and their plasticity determine responses of plant performance and community functional property to nitrogen enrichment in a boreal peatland

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Abstract

Aims

Nitrogen (N) enrichment is well-known to cause declines in plant diversity, yet it remains a challenge to predict which species would be winners or losers. Here, we examined whether traits and their plasticity could predict plant performance under N enrichment, and how changes in plant performance and trait expression could affect community functional property.

Methods

Relative cover, six leaf traits, and maximum plant height of eight common vascular plants were measured after six-year N addition (0, 3, 6, 12 g N m−2 year−1) in a boreal peatland in Northeast China. Plant performance responding to N enrichment and trait plasticity were separately calculated as changes in relative cover and trait values between control and N addition treatments. Moreover, we quantified relative contributions of species turnover and intraspecific trait variation to changes in functional property.

Results

Changes in plant performance were significantly related to plasticity in specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf N concentration (LN) under low N addition, but to maximum plant height under high N addition. When scaled up to the community level, intraspecific trait variation significantly contributed to changes in community-weighted mean leaf area, SLA, leaf tissue density, and LN, and functional diversity of all six leaf traits.

Conclusions

These findings highlight the significance of trait plasticity in predicting responses of plant performance and community functional property to N enrichment, and suggest that trait-based approaches are useful in predicting ecological consequences of environmental changes in boreal peatlands.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jianqiang Qian and Huimin Chen for their help in laboratory analyses. We also thank Dr. Luca Bragazza and six anonymous reviewers for suggestions that greatly improved our manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31700538, 31830015, and 31570479), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (No. 2019200), and the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences CAS (No. QYZDB-SSW-DQC002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Guigang Lin & De-Hui Zeng

  2. Key Laboratory of State Forestry and Grassland Administration on Forest Ecosystem Protection and Restoration of Poyang Lake Watershed, College of Forestry, Jiangxi Agricultural University, No. 1101 Zhimin Road, Nanchang, 330045, China

    Rong Mao

  3. Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China

    Rong Mao

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  1. Guigang Lin
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Lin, G., Zeng, DH. & Mao, R. Traits and their plasticity determine responses of plant performance and community functional property to nitrogen enrichment in a boreal peatland. Plant Soil 449, 151–167 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04478-4

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