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δ13C and water-use efficiency indicated by δ13C of different plant functional groups on Changbai Mountains, Northeast China

  • Articles/Geochemistry
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Leaf δ 13C of different plant functional groups (trees, shrubs and forbs; evergreen and deciduous; annual, biennial and perennial) were examined on the Changbai Mountains, China. Life form has a significant influence on plant δ 13C, suggesting that leaf δ 13C is also ideal for distinguishing functional groups species in temperate and frigid zones with high humidity. Additionally, the difference of water-use efficiency (WUE) is significant among different plant functional groups. δ 13C and WUE are in the following order of forbs < shrubs < trees. Within shrubs, δ 13C and WUE are higher for evergreen shrubs than deciduous shrubs. Differences in δ 13C and WUE are significant among different lifespan herbs, and δ 13C and WUE follow the order of annual herbs > biennial herbs > perennial herbs, not in accordance with the pattern obtained by previous studies in deserts, suggesting that the ranking of δ 13C and WUE among annual, biennial and perennial herbs may be dependent on local water availability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100094, China

    WenBing Tan, GuoAn Wang & Ting Luo

  2. MOE Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    WenBing Tan, Min Liu & LiPing Zhou

  3. Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    JiaMao Han

  4. Chinese National Herbarium Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    ZiYu Cao & ShuZhi Cheng

Authors
  1. WenBing Tan
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  2. GuoAn Wang
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  3. JiaMao Han
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  4. Min Liu
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  5. LiPing Zhou
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  6. Ting Luo
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  7. ZiYu Cao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to GuoAn Wang.

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Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40472159)

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Tan, W., Wang, G., Han, J. et al. δ13C and water-use efficiency indicated by δ13C of different plant functional groups on Changbai Mountains, Northeast China. Chin. Sci. Bull. 54, 1759–1764 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0046-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0046-1

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