Morphological responses of Leymus chinensis (Poaceae) to the large-scale climatic gradient along the North-east China Transect (NECT) |
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Authors: | Renzhong Wang Qiong Gao |
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Institution: | Laboratory of Quantitative Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, no. 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Beijing, 100093, China, and;Institute of Resources Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China |
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Abstract: | A field experiment was conducted to examine the morphological variations of Leymus chinensis along the climatic gradient of the North‐east China Transect (NECT), from 115° to 125° E, in the vicinity of 43.5° N, in north‐eastern China. Ten sites selected for plant sampling along the gradient have approximately uniform theoretical radiation, but differ in precipitation and geographical elevation. The results of analyses showed that vegetative and reproductive shoot heights, flag leaf lengths and widths and seed numbers per inflorescence increased from the west to the east with precipitation, but decreased with aridity. Leaf lengths and widths for most leaf types from 115° to 124° E exhibited little variations. Significant correlations of plant heights, flag leaf lengths and widths and seed numbers per inflorescence with large‐scale climatic variables (e.g. annual precipitation, aridity) and geographical variation (longitude) found in this study indicated that climatic factors have significant effects on some morphological traits of L. chinensis along the NECT. |
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Keywords: | Large-scale climatic gradient leaf length and width Leymus chinensis plant height seed number the North-east China Transect |
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