Growth response of Mountain birch to air and soil temperature: is increasing leaf‐nitrogen content an acclimation to lower air temperature?

Abstract

Summary• Growth and nitrogen (N) economy of mountain birch are reported here in response to temperature change. Mechanisms of temperature effects on plant growth in temperate -arctic regions are discussed in the light of decreasing growth rates and increasing leaf-N contents along altitudinal and latitudinal temperature gradients.• Mountain birch ( Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) seedlings were grown at two soil temperatures, air temperatures and nutrient concentrations in a full-factorial experiment during one growing season in northern Sweden.• Changes in air and soil temperature affected aboveground growth more than belowground growth. An increase in air temperature increased leaf area ratio and plant-N productivity while decreasing plant-N concentration and leaf-N content. A change in soil temperature affected root-N uptake rate and plant-N concentration, similar to the effect of a change in nutrient supply. Air and soil temperature had interactive effects on growth rate, N productivity and leaf-N content.• The results indicate that increasing leaf-N content with increasing altitude and latitude is not only a passive consequence of weaker N dilution by reduced growth, but also a physiological acclimation to lower air temperature.

Adaptability to elevated temperature and nitrogen addition is greater in a high-elevation population than in a low-elevation population of Hippophae rhamnoides

“…A morphological response to an environmental change can take place through an avoidance mechanism by adjusting plant growth rate variables, such as leaf area, root mass, shoot mass and total dry mass. Our results are consistent with many previous studies showing that above-ground plant growth of mountain birch and aspen is further increased by elevated temperature in comparison to below-ground growth (Weih and Karlsson 2001;Landhäusser and Lieffers 2003). The stimulation effect on TLA in the highelevation population was larger than that in the lowelevation population.…”

Leaf‐trait relationships of Quercus liaotungensis along an altitudinal gradient in Dongling Mountain, Beijing

“…SLA decreased with increasing altitude, as found before, showing that plant growth slowed down and worked better in the stressed environment where retention of captured resources is a higher priority (Wilson et al 1999). Increasing leaf N, however, also reflected acclimation with respect to optimal N use (Weih and Karlsson 2001). The temperature-plant physiological hypothesis predicts that leaf N should raise with decreasing temperature, as high leaf N may compensate for the low efficiency of physiological processes at low temperatures (Reich and Oleksyn 2004).…”

A Meta-analysis of the Effects of Experimental Warming on Plant Physiology and Growth on the Tibetan Plateau

“…To adapt to cold climates, alpine plants generally decrease their height (Friend and Woodward 1990) and allocate more carbon into roots compared to leaves and shoots (Weih and Karlsson 2001). The low height of alpine plants can increase the relative temperature of leaf, shoot, and soil (Friend and Woodward 1990;Li and others 2008).…”

“…The low height of alpine plants can increase the relative temperature of leaf, shoot, and soil (Friend and Woodward 1990;Li and others 2008). Warming-induced temperature increases in leaf, shoot and soil (Wang and others 2012;Lu and others 2013) may alleviate low temperature stress and decrease the relative carbon allocation into roots, which in turn cause an increase in plant height (Friend and Woodward 1990;Weih and Karlsson 2001).…”