Responses of leaf traits to altitude in and on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China.

As the most senstitive plant organs to environmental changes, leaves serve as crucial indicators of plant survival strategies. We measured the morphology, anatomical traits, gas exchange parameters, and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters of (evergreen broad-leaved) and (deciduous broad-leaved) at altitudes of 2600, 2800, 3000, 3200 and 3400 m on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. We explored the similarity and difference in their responses to altitude change and the ecological adaptation strategy.

[Effects of thinning on accumulation of soil microbial residue carbon of plantations in sub-alpine region of western Sichuan, China].

Microbial residues are an important component of soil organic carbon (SOC). It is unclear how long-term thinning affects the accumulation characteristics of microbial residue carbon (C). We analyzed the differences in soil physicochemical properties, microbial communities, extracellular enzyme activities, and microbial residue C in topsoil (0-10 cm) and subsoil (20-30 cm) in plantation of non-thinned (control, 4950 trees·hm) and thinned for 14 years (1160 trees·hm) stands, aiming to reveal the regulatory mechanism of thinning on microbial residue C accumulation.

How Seeds Attract and Protect: Seed Coat Development of .

Seeds are one of the most important characteristics of plant evolution. Within a seed, the embryo, which will grow into a plant, can survive harsh environments. When the seeds are mature, the mother plant will disperse them from its body, allowing them to be taken away to grow in a new place.

Effects of slope aspect on soil enzyme activity and microbial nutrient limitation in subalpine region of wes-tern Sichuan, China.

Exploring the resource limitation of soil microbial metabolism is essential to understand ecosystem functions and processes. However, the spatially divergent patterns and drivers of soil microbial nutrient limitation cha-racteristics in montane ecosystems at small scales, especially at the slope aspect scale, are still unclear. In this study, we measured soil enzyme activities involved in carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycle and quantified the microbial nutrient limitations by enzyme stoichiometry in two representative mountain sites in subalpine region of western Sichuan, including the sunny and shady slopes with different vegetation types (shrubland and forest, respectively) in Miyaluo of Lixian County, and with the same vegetation type (shrubland) in Yakexia of Heishui County.

Temperature rather than N availability determines root exudation of alpine coniferous forests on the eastern Tibetan Plateau along elevation gradients.

Root exudation fulfills fundamental roles in regulating carbon (C)-nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems, yet the main ecological drivers of root exudation and underlying mechanisms in forests under natural gradients remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the intraspecific variation of root exudation rates in two alpine coniferous forests (Abies faxoniana Rehder et Wilson and Abies georgei Orr) along two elevation gradients on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Meanwhile, the fine root traits and associated climate and soil parameters were assessed to examine the effects of elevation-dependent changes in climatic and soil nutrient conditions on root exudation.

Contrasting responses of soil microbial biomass and extracellular enzyme activity along an elevation gradient on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Soil microbial community composition and extracellular enzyme activity are two main drivers of biogeochemical cycling. Knowledge about their elevational patterns is of great importance for predicting ecosystem functioning in response to climate change. Nevertheless, there is no consensus on how soil microbial community composition and extracellular enzyme activity vary with elevation, and little is known about their elevational variations on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, a region sensitive to global change.

Altitudinal Variation Influences Soil Fungal Community Composition and Diversity in Alpine-Gorge Region on the Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Soil fungi play an integral and essential role in maintaining soil ecosystem functions. The understanding of altitude variations and their drivers of soil fungal community composition and diversity remains relatively unclear. Mountains provide an open, natural platform for studying how the soil fungal community responds to climatic variability at a short altitude distance.

Changes in litter input exert divergent effects on the soil microbial community and function in stands of different densities.

Soil microbial communities influence soil biogeochemical cycling by affecting the production of extracellular enzymes and the release of carbon dioxide. Changes in litter input or stand density due to thinning can affect soil microbial communities and their function by altering soil biochemical properties. However, it is unclear how or to what extent different amounts of litter input affect soil microbial communities and their function in forest stands with different densities.

Nutrient trade-offs mediated by ectomycorrhizal strategies in plants: Evidence from an species in subalpine forests.

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) symbiosis is an evolutionary biological trait of higher plants for effective nutrient uptakes. However, little is known that how the formation and morphological differentiations of ECM roots mediate the nutrients of below- and aboveground plant tissues and the balance among nutrient elements across environmental gradients. Here, we investigated the effects of ECM foraging strategies on root and foliar N and P concentrations and N:P ratio under variations of climate and soil conditions.

The complete chloroplast genome of (Labiatae).

Fisch. ex Schrank Li is a traditional Chinese medicinal plant of genus from the Labiatae family. The complete chloroplast genome of was 152,336 bp in length, which contained 133 complete genes including 87 protein-coding genes (87 PCGs), 8 ribosomal RNA genes (8 rRNAs), and 37 transfer RNA genes (37 tRNAs).

Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of (Salicaceae).

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of , a native shrub willow species in the south of China, has been characterized using Illumina pair-end sequencing. The plastome is 155,093 bp in length, with one large single copy region of 83,956 bp, one small single copy region of 16,221 bp, and two inverted repeat (IR) regions of 27,458 bp. It contains 116 genes, including 79 protein-coding genes, 8 ribosomal RNA, and 36 transfer RNA.

[Differentiation of ectomycorrhizal morphology in along an elevation gradient in a subalpine forest of western Sichuan Province, China].

Ectomycorrhizal fungi are an important group of symbiotic fungi beneficial to plant growth and their environmental adaptation. An explicit clarification of the trait of ectomycorrhizal fungi would facilitate our understanding of plant responses to environmental change. We set up sampling plots at five elevations (2850, 3000, 3194, 3413, 3593 m) in the Balong Mountain within the Wolong Nature Reserve of Sichuan Province, and collected cubic soil samples (10 cm×10 cm×10 cm) from those plots by point centered quarter method.

Growth habit and leaf economics determine gas exchange responses to high elevation in an evergreen tree, a deciduous shrub and a herbaceous annual.

Plant growth at high elevations necessitates physiological and morphological plasticity to enable photosynthesis (A) under conditions of reduced temperature, increased radiation and the lower partial pressure of atmospheric gases, in particular carbon dioxide (pCO2). Previous studies have observed a wide range of responses to elevation in plant species depending on their adaptation to temperature, elevational range and growth habit. Here, we investigated the effect of an increase in elevation from 2500 to 3500 m above sea level (a.

[Dynamics of carbon and nitrogen storage of Cupressus chengiana plantations in the arid valley of Minjiang River, Southwest China].

The carbon and nitrogen storage and distribution patterns of Cupressus chengiana plantation ecosystems with different stand ages in the arid valley of Minjiang River were studied. The results showed that carbon contents in different organs of C. chengiana were relatively stable, while nitrogen contents were closely related to different organs, and soil organic carbon and nitrogen contents increased with the stand age.

[Effects of altitudinal gradient on Salix atopantha foliar delta13C].

In 2010, measurements were conducted on the foliar delta13C, photosynthesis, CO2 diffusive conductivity, nitrogen content, photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE), and special leaf area (SLA) of Salix atopantha at different altitudes (2350 m, 2700 m, 3150 m, and 3530 m) in Wolong Natural Reserve. With the increase of altitude, the foliar nitrogen content (especially the nitrogen content per unit leaf area, N(area)) and the PNUE increased, and the foliar delta13C had a significant increase, with an increment of 1.4 per thousand per 1000 m altitude.