The effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) in the Himalayas

Abstract

There is currently enormous interest in how morphological and physiological responses of herbaceous plants may be affected by changing elevational gradient. Mountain regions provide an excellent opportunity to understand how closely related species may adapt to the conditions that rapidly change with elevation. We investigated the morphological and physiological responses of two Himalayan alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) along two different vertical transects of 400 m, R. purpurea between 2,174–2,574 m a.s.l and R. alpina between 2,675–3,079 m a.s.l. We measured the variables of plant height, leaf length, leaf area, specific leaf area, and stomata density at five plots, along the vertical transect at an elevational gap of ca. 100 m. Results revealed that with increased elevation plant height, and leaf area decreased while stomata density increased, whereas changes in specific leaf area, were not correlated with the elevation. Our results reveal that these alpine gingers undergo local adaptation by modifying their plant height, leaf area and stomata density in response to the varying selection pressure associated with the elevational gradient. Thus, the findings of this research provide valuable information on how a narrow range of elevational gradient affects the herbaceous plants at the alpine habitat of the Himalayas.

Patterns of floral allocation along an elevation gradient: variation in Senecio subalpinus growing in the Tatra Mountains

“…These findings are consistent with the common patterns associated with plant size reductions in other mountainous plant species (e.g. Alexander et al 2009;Zhu et al 2010;Maad et al 2013;Paudel et al 2019). Studies based on the transplantation of plants originating from different elevations to common garden plots, or reciprocal transplantation to plots located at different elevations, confirm that both phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation can have an effect on plant morphology across different elevation gradients (e.g.…”

“…The most pronounced changes associated with increasing elevation in temperate mountain regions include decreases in temperature, increased light intensity and UV radiation, shortening of the growing season, increased precipitation, and increases in strong wind frequency (Körner 2003;Nagy and Grabherr 2009). Meanwhile, intraspecific morphological variation associated with these changes include a reduced overall size (Alexander et al 2009;Zhu et al 2010;Maad et al 2013;Paudel et al 2019), more intensive clonal growth (Št'astná et al 2012) and a longer life span (von Arx et al 2006;Št'astná et al 2012), as well as smaller numbers of larger flowers (Kelly 1998; Kudo and Molau 1999;Malo and Baonza 2002;Herrera 2005;Maad et al 2013;Gabel et al 2017;He et al 2017) and heavier seeds (Kudo and Molau 1999;Alexander et al 2009;Wu et al 2011;Qi et al 2015). However, decreases in flower size (Totland 2001; Zhao and Wang 2015) and seed mass (Totland 2004;Wirth et al 2010) with increasing elevation have also been reported, suggesting that the pattern of reproductive allocation is species specific or context dependent.…”

“…Understanding the performance of mountain plants in their natural populations across different elevation gradients is gaining increasing attention (e.g. Dai et al 2017;He et al 2017;Seguí et al 2018;Paudel et al 2019;Bucher and Römermann 2020). The findings will help us understand how plants have adapted to life on steep environmental gradients, while allowing us to predict mountain plant responses to climatic change, particularly in cold environments (Frei et al 2010;Theurillat and Guisan 2001).…”

Intraspecific morphological variation ofBellidiastrum michelii(Asteraceae) along a 1,155 m elevation gradient in the Tatra Mountains

“…Elevation therefore encompasses many abiotic and biotic components. Thus, elevation likely acts as a key summary variable that relates to the phenotypic variation observed in plants growing on mountains (Kelly, 1998;Hautier et al, 2009;Scheepens & Stöcklin, 2013;He et al, 2017;Miljković et al, 2019;Paudel et al, 2019).…”

Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Roscoea alpina (Zingiberaceae), a medicinal plant in southwest of China

“…Among these species, Roscoea alpina is widely distributed in southwest China which have been used in ethnic medicine as fracture and trauma bleeding (Minru et al 2016). However, up to now for such medicinal plant, many studies have mainly focused on describing its resources and ecology (Paudel et al 2019), with little involvement in its molecular biology, so that no comprehensive genomic resource is conducted for it. Here, we report the chloroplast genome sequence of R.alpina and find its internal relationships within the family Zingiberaceae.…”