Effects of experimental warming on growth, biomass allocation, and needle chemistry of Abies faxoniana in even-aged monospecific stands

Abstract

The response and adaption mechanisms of seedlings under long-term warming have remained largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of warming for 6 years on growth, and needle carbon, nitrogen, chlorophyll, and carbohydrate levels in a coniferous tree species, Abies faxoniana. Seedlings were grown in even-aged monospecific stands under ambient and warming (ambient ?2.2°C) temperature in climate control chambers. Warming caused statistically significant increases in the specific leaf area, leaf area ratio, root biomass, leaf biomass, branch biomass, stem biomass, and total mass of the seedlings, and reduced the root/shoot ratio. Warming also increased total chlorophyll concentrations, specific chlorophyll pigments, and Chlorophyll a/b ratios in both studied needle age classes. In addition, C/N ratios of current-year and 1-year-old needles increased by warming. In contrast, warming decreased the levels of N, sugar, cellulose, and starch in needles, while warming had no effect on the height, stem diameter, needle mass ratio, root mass ratio, and root/needle ratio. We conclude that warming increases branch growth and changes needle chemistry, which enhances the light capture potential of seedlings.

Effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on photosynthesis and leaf traits of an understory dwarf bamboo in subalpine forest zone, China

“…The bamboo grown understory with limited light would benefit from a lower SLA induced by elevated CO 2 concentration. In accordance with previous studies (Luomala et al , Wang et al ), elevation temperature leads to form thinner leaf.…”

Species-specific growth and photosynthetic responses of first-year seedlingsof four coniferous species to open-field experimental warming

“…Saxe et al (2001) also noted that growth responses to temperature are related at a species or provenance level, but not at a broader genetic level. Consistent with the different growth responses observed among species in this study, other species of the genera Pinus and Abies showed different growth responses following warming (Wang et al, 1995;Tjoelker et al, 1998;Zhao and Liu, 2009a;Wang et al, 2012;Yang et al, 2013). While RCD, seedling height, and total biomass of first-year P. densiflora increased under warming in this study, those of 2-4-year-old P. densiflora were not found to differ in response to warming in a previous study (Lee et al, 2013).…”

Growth and Physiological Characteristics of Pinus densiflora Seedlings in Response to Open-field Experimental Warming using the Infrared Lamp

“…Gunderson et al, 2010;Zhou et al, 2007) Table 3). 이전 연구에서도 온난화 처리에 따라 잎의 C/N율이 증 가하는 것으로 관찰된 바 있다 (Sardans et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2012 Alaskan white spruce in the twentieth century from temperature-induced drought stress. Nature 405: 668-673.…”