Photosynthesis in relation to leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and specific leaf area of seedlings and saplings in tropical montane rain forests of Hainan Island, south China

Abstract

In order to make clear the relationships between photosynthesis and leaf N, leaf P and SLA of tropical trees, and test the differences in the relationships among life-form groups (trees, shrub-like trees and shrubs), seedlings and saplings of 101 species from a tropical montane rain forest, located in the Diaoluo Mountain of Hainan Island, were selected. The net photosynthesis based on area and mass (A_area and A_mass), leaf nitrogen content based on area and mass (N_area and N_mass), leaf phosphorus content based on area and mass (P_area and P_mass) and specific leaf area (SLA) were measured and/or calculated. The results showed that A_area and A_mass tended to follow the order of shrubs>trees>shrub-like trees. One-way ANOVA showed that the difference in A_area between shrubs and shrub-like trees was significant (p<0.05), and for A_mass there were significant differences between shrubs and shrub-like trees and between shrubs and tree species (p<0.05). The relationships between A_area and N_mass were highly significant in all three life-form groups and for all species (p<0.0001). The correlation between A_area and P_mass was highly significant in shrubs (p=0.0038), shrub-like trees (p=0.0002) and for all species (p<0.0001), but not significant in trees (p>0.05). The relationship between A_area and SLA was highly significant in shrubs (p=0.0006), trees (p<0.0001) and for all species (p<0.0001), however this relation was not significant in shrub-like trees (p>0.05). The relationships between A_mass and leaf N and SLA were highly significant in all three life-form groups and for all species (p<0.0001). For A_mass and leaf P, there were significant correlations in tree groups (p=0.0377) and highly significant correlations in shrub groups (p=0.0004), shrub-like tree groups (p=0.0018) and for all species (p<0.0001). Stepwise regression showed that predicted A_mass values were closer to the observed values than those for predicted A_area values. Thus, it can be concluded that the relationships obtained from seedling and sapling measurements are close to those from mature individuals; correlations between photosynthesis and N_mass, P_mass and SLA traits are significant and the relationships are stronger and more stable for A_mass than for A_area.

Keywords

photosynthesis / tropical montane rain forest / sapling / leaf nitrogen and phosphorus / specific leaf area

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Acknowledgements

We thank Shiting Zhang, Chao Fang, Wenchi Jin and the staff of the Hainan Diaoluoshan Bureau of Forestry for their help in the field survey. We would also like to thank Prof. Shiman HUANG for his assistance in species identification. The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 30430570 and 30570298).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg