Journal
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2015.00961
Keywords
alpine plants; carbon isotope discrimination; temperature; water availability; key growth-limiting factor
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41272193, 31272251, 31421092]
- Ph.D. Program Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China [20100008110003]
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Many environmental factors affect carbon isotope discrimination in plants, yet the predominant factor influencing this process is generally assumed to be the key growth limiting factor. However, to our knowledge this hypothesis has not been confirmed. We therefore determined the carbon isotope composition (delta C-13) of plants growing in two cold and humid mountain regions where temperature is considered to be the key growth limiting factor. Mean annual temperature (MAT) showed a significant impact on variation in carbon isotope discrimination value (Delta) irrespective of study area or plant functional type with either partial correlation or regression analysis, but the correlation between Delta and soil water content (SWC) was usually not significant. In multiple stepwise regression analysis, MAT was either the first or the only variable selected into the prediction model of Delta against MAT and SWC, indicating that the effect of temperature on carbon isotope discrimination was predominant. The results therefore provide evidence that the key growth-limiting factor is also crucial for plant carbon isotope discrimination. Changes in leaf morphology, water viscosity and carbokilation efficiency with temperature may be responsible for the observed positive correlation between Delta and temperature.
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