Abstract
Variation in plant functional traits reflects environmental adaptation. Understanding how traits shift along elevational gradients can clarify mechanisms by which species respond to environmental change. Here, we used white birch (Betula platyphylla) in the Niyang River Basin (left bank of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, Xizang) as a model species to quantify leaf trait variation along an elevational gradient and to identify key environmental drivers. Leaf functional traits were analyzed using one-way ANOVA, redundancy analysis (RDA), Pearson correlation, and principal component analysis (PCA). Coefficients of variation ranged from 5.52% to 26.14%, with leaf area showing the greatest variation and leaf water content the lowest. Most traits differed significantly among elevations: leaf area (LA), leaf length (LL), leaf width (LW), petiole length (PL), petiole base width (PBW) and leaf phosphorus content (LPC) declined with increasing elevation, whereas leaf nitrogen content (LNC) and leaf N: P ratio increased. Total chlorophyll content (TChl) and leaf water content (LWC) exhibited a hump-shaped pattern along the elevational gradient. In contrast, leaf dry matter content (LDMC) exhibited a unimodal pattern along the elevational gradient, whereas specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf mass per area (LMA) showed no significant trends with elevation. RDA indicated that soil factors were the primary drivers of leaf trait variation, explaining 50.90% of the total variance; soil total nitrogen (TN), pH, and available potassium (AK) were the most influential variables. Trait patterns suggest contrasting resource acquisition strategies across elevations: high-elevation individuals enhanced photosynthetic efficiency and shifted toward a more acquisitive "fast investment-return" strategy to cope with harsher conditions. Our findings contribute to understanding the adaptive responses of montane tree species to climate warming and improve our understanding of plant trait variation along environmental gradients.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by-nc-nd. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Leaf trait variation ranged from 5.52% to 26.14%.
- Taxon
- white birch
Betula pendulae1 - Outcome
- Coefficients of variatione0
- Value
- 5.52% to 26.14%e0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Coefficients of variation ranged from 5.52% to 26.14%, with leaf area showing the greatest variation and leaf water content the lowest.”
e1“white birch (Betula platyphylla)”
Claim · model-written summary
Leaf area, length, width, petiole length and base width declined with elevation.
- Taxon
- white birchBetula pendulae1
- Outcome
- leaf area (LA), leaf length (LL), leaf width (LW), petiole length (PL), petiole base width (PBW)e0
- Direction
- declinede0
- Setting
- elevationse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Most traits differed significantly among elevations: leaf area (LA), leaf length (LL), leaf width (LW), petiole length (PL), petiole base width (PBW) and leaf phosphorus content (LPC) declined with increasing elevation”
e1“white birch (Betula platyphylla)”
Claim · model-written summary
Leaf phosphorus declined with elevation.
- Taxon
- white birchBetula pendulae1
- Outcome
- leaf phosphorus content (LPC)e0
- Direction
- declinede0
- Setting
- elevatione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“leaf phosphorus content (LPC) declined with increasing elevation”
e1“white birch (Betula platyphylla)”
Claim · model-written summary
Leaf nitrogen and nitrogen to phosphorus ratio increased with elevation.
- Taxon
- white birchBetula pendulae2
- Outcome
- leaf nitrogen content (LNC) and leaf N: P ratioe0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Setting
- elevationse1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“leaf nitrogen content (LNC) and leaf N: P ratio increased.”
e1“Most traits differed significantly among elevations”
e2“white birch (Betula platyphylla)”
Claim · model-written summary
Chlorophyll and water content followed hump-shaped elevation patterns.
- Taxon
- white birchBetula pendulae1
- Outcome
- Total chlorophyll content (TChl) and leaf water content (LWC)e0
- Direction
- hump-shapede0
- Setting
- elevational gradiente0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Total chlorophyll content (TChl) and leaf water content (LWC) exhibited a hump-shaped pattern along the elevational gradient.”
e1“white birch (Betula platyphylla)”
Claim · model-written summary
Leaf dry matter content followed a unimodal elevation pattern.
- Taxon
- white birchBetula pendulae1
- Outcome
- leaf dry matter content (LDMC)e0
- Direction
- unimodale0
- Setting
- elevational gradiente0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“leaf dry matter content (LDMC) exhibited a unimodal pattern along the elevational gradient”
e1“white birch (Betula platyphylla)”
Claim · model-written summary
Specific leaf area and leaf mass per area showed no significant elevation trends.
- Taxon
- white birchBetula pendulae1
- Outcome
- specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf mass per area (LMA)e0
- Direction
- no significant trendse0
- Setting
- elevatione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf mass per area (LMA) showed no significant trends with elevation.”
e1“white birch (Betula platyphylla)”
Claim · model-written summary
Soil factors explained 50.90% of leaf trait variance.
- Taxon
- white birchBetula pendulae1
- Outcome
- leaf trait variatione0
- Value
- 50.90%e0
- Setting
- soil factorse0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“soil factors were the primary drivers of leaf trait variation, explaining 50.90% of the total variance; soil total nitrogen (TN), pH, and available potassium (AK) were the most influential variables.”
e1“white birch (Betula platyphylla)”