Long-term warming results in species-specific shifts in seed mass in alpine communities

NWIPB OpenIR

	Long-term warming results in species-specific shifts in seed mass in alpine communities
	Zhang, Chunhui; Ma, Zhen; Zhou, Huakun; Zhao, Xinquan
	2019
发表期刊	PEERJ
卷号	7
摘要	Background. Global warming can cause variation in plant functional traits due to phenotypic plasticity or rapid microevolutionary change. Seed mass represents a fundamental axis of trait variation in plants, from an individual to a community scale. Here, we hypothesize that long-term warming can shift the mean seed mass of species. Methods. We tested our hypothesis in plots that had been warmed over 18 years in alpine meadow communities with a history of light grazing (LG) and heavy grazing (HG) on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. In this study, seeds were collected during the growing season of 2015. Results. We found that warming increased the mean seed mass of 4 (n = 19) species in the LG meadow and 6 (n = 20) species in the HG meadow, while decreasing the mean seed mass of 6 species in the LG and HG meadows, respectively. For 7 species, grazing history modified the effect of warming on seed mass. Therefore, we concluded that long-term warming can shift the mean seed mass at the species level. However, the direction of this variation is species-specific. Our study suggests that mean seed mass of alpine plant species appears to decrease in warmer (less stressful) habitats based on life-history theory, but it also suggests there may be an underlying trade-off in which mean seed mass may increase due to greater thermal energy inputs into seed development. Furthermore, the physical and biotic environment modulating this trade-off result in complex patterns of variation in mean seed mass of alpine plant species facing global warming.
关键词	Climate change Functional traits Grazing Qinghai-tibet plateau Trait variation
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://210.75.249.4/handle/363003/59740
专题	中国科学院西北高原生物研究所
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Zhang, Chunhui,Ma, Zhen,Zhou, Huakun,et al. Long-term warming results in species-specific shifts in seed mass in alpine communities[J]. PEERJ,2019,7.
APA	Zhang, Chunhui,Ma, Zhen,Zhou, Huakun,&Zhao, Xinquan.(2019).Long-term warming results in species-specific shifts in seed mass in alpine communities.PEERJ,7.
MLA	Zhang, Chunhui,et al."Long-term warming results in species-specific shifts in seed mass in alpine communities".PEERJ 7(2019).