Correlated Biogeographic Variation of Magnesium across Trophic Levels in a Terrestrial Food Chain |
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| Authors: | Xiao Sun Adam D Kay Hongzhang Kang Gaston E Small Guofang Liu Xuan Zhou Shan Yin Chunjiang Liu |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.; 2. Department of Biology, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States of America.; 3. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.; 4. Shanghai Jiao Tong University Research Centre for Low Carbon Agriculture, Shanghai, China.; Scottish Association for Marine Science, United Kingdom, |
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| Abstract: | Using samples from eastern China (c. 25 – 41° N and 99 – 123° E) and from a common garden experiment, we investigate how Mg concentration varies with climate across multiple trophic levels. In soils, plant tissue (Oriental oak leaves and acorns), and a specialist acorn predator (the weevil Curculio davidi), Mg concentration increased significantly with different slopes from south to north, and generally decreased with both mean annual temperature (MAT) and precipitation (MAP). In addition, soil, leaf, acorn and weevil Mg showed different strengths of association and sensitivity with climatic factors, suggesting that distinct mechanisms may drive patterns of Mg variation at different trophic levels. Our findings provide a first step toward determining whether anticipated changes in temperature and precipitation due to climate change will have important consequences for the bioavailability and distribution of Mg in food chain. |
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