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C, N, P stoichiometric characteristics of tree, shrub, herb leaves and litter in forest community of Shaanxi Province, China.

JIANG Pei-pei1, CAO Yang2,3, CHEN Yun-ming2,3*   

  1. (1College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China;2State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University,Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China; 3Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China)
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  • Online:2016-02-18 Published:2016-02-18

Abstract: A total of 121 sampling sites were selected to study the C, N, P stoichiometric characteristics among the leaves of tree, shrub, herb and the litter of the majority forest community of Shaanxi Province, China. We also studied their relationships with geographical factors. The results showed that C, N concentrations were highest in tree leaf, P concentration was highest in herb leaf, and the C, N, P concentrations were lowest in litter. Leaf C:N:P ratios of tree, shrub, herb leaves and litter were 439.4:14.2:1, 599.2:13.5:1, 416.5:13.3:1, 504.8:15.5:1, respectively. The N:P ratios of tree, shrub and herb leaves were not significantly different, but they were all significantly higher than that of litter layer, indicating N:P ratio of different living life forms’ leaves was stable. Compared with N, C and P had better relationships in each layer, and the relationships of leaf C, N, P stoichiometry between tree and herb leaves were better than those between tree and shrub leaves. The correlations of C, N, P stoichiometry between litter and the tree or herb leaves were highly significantly positive, and the correlations of P stoichiometry between litter and shrub leaves were highly significantly positive. Shrub leaf N, P concentration increased with the increasing latitude, and herb leaf N, P concentrations decreased with the increasing longitude. Compared with the longitude and latitude, the effect of altitude was smaller, and only tree leaf N:P decreased with the increasing latitude. Multivariate linear regression analysis results showed that the influence of geographical factors on herb leaf was longitude > latitude > altitude, while was latitude > longitude >altitude for tree, shrub leaves and litter.