Plant Functional Groups Dominate Responses of Plant Adaptive Strategies to Urbanization

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Author(s)
Xiao, Yihua
Liu, Shirong
Zhang, Manyun
Tong, Fuchun
Xu, Zhihong
Ford, Rebecca
Zhang, Tianlin
Shi, Xin
Wu, Zhongmin
Luo, Tushou
Year published
2021
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Urbanization causes alteration in atmospheric, soil, and hydrological factors and substantially affects a range of morphological and physiological plant traits. Correspondingly, plants might adopt different strategies to adapt to urbanization promotion or pressure. Understanding of plant traits responding to urbanization will reveal the capacity of plant adaptation and optimize the choice of plant species in urbanization green. In this study, four different functional groups (herbs, shrubs, subcanopies, and canopies, eight plant species totally) located in urban, suburban, and rural areas were selected and eight replicated ...
View more >Urbanization causes alteration in atmospheric, soil, and hydrological factors and substantially affects a range of morphological and physiological plant traits. Correspondingly, plants might adopt different strategies to adapt to urbanization promotion or pressure. Understanding of plant traits responding to urbanization will reveal the capacity of plant adaptation and optimize the choice of plant species in urbanization green. In this study, four different functional groups (herbs, shrubs, subcanopies, and canopies, eight plant species totally) located in urban, suburban, and rural areas were selected and eight replicated plants were selected for each species at each site. Their physiological and photosynthetic properties and heavy metal concentrations were quantified to reveal plant adaptive strategies to urbanization. The herb and shrub species had significantly higher starch and soluble sugar contents in urban than in suburban areas. Urbanization decreased the maximum photosynthetic rates and total chlorophyll contents of the canopies (Engelhardtia roxburghiana and Schima superba). The herbs (Lophatherum gracile and Alpinia chinensis) and shrubs (Ardisia quinquegona and Psychotria rubra) species in urban areas had significantly lower nitrogen (N) allocated in the cell wall and leaf δ15N values but higher heavy metal concentrations than those in suburban areas. The canopy and subcanopy (Diospyros morrisiana and Cratoxylum cochinchinense) species adapt to the urbanization via reducing resource acquisition but improving defense capacity, while the herb and shrub species improve resource acquisition to adapt to the urbanization. Our current studies indicated that functional groups affected the responses of plant adaptive strategies to the urbanization.
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View more >Urbanization causes alteration in atmospheric, soil, and hydrological factors and substantially affects a range of morphological and physiological plant traits. Correspondingly, plants might adopt different strategies to adapt to urbanization promotion or pressure. Understanding of plant traits responding to urbanization will reveal the capacity of plant adaptation and optimize the choice of plant species in urbanization green. In this study, four different functional groups (herbs, shrubs, subcanopies, and canopies, eight plant species totally) located in urban, suburban, and rural areas were selected and eight replicated plants were selected for each species at each site. Their physiological and photosynthetic properties and heavy metal concentrations were quantified to reveal plant adaptive strategies to urbanization. The herb and shrub species had significantly higher starch and soluble sugar contents in urban than in suburban areas. Urbanization decreased the maximum photosynthetic rates and total chlorophyll contents of the canopies (Engelhardtia roxburghiana and Schima superba). The herbs (Lophatherum gracile and Alpinia chinensis) and shrubs (Ardisia quinquegona and Psychotria rubra) species in urban areas had significantly lower nitrogen (N) allocated in the cell wall and leaf δ15N values but higher heavy metal concentrations than those in suburban areas. The canopy and subcanopy (Diospyros morrisiana and Cratoxylum cochinchinense) species adapt to the urbanization via reducing resource acquisition but improving defense capacity, while the herb and shrub species improve resource acquisition to adapt to the urbanization. Our current studies indicated that functional groups affected the responses of plant adaptive strategies to the urbanization.
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Journal Title
Frontiers in Plant Science
Volume
12
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Xiao, Liu, Zhang, Tong, Xu, Ford, Zhang, Shi, Wu and Luo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Subject
Plant biology
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Plant Sciences
urbanization
plant functional groups