Assessing leaf physiological traits in response to flooding among dominant riparian herbs along the Three Gorges Dam in China.

ABSTRACT: Dams worldwide have significantly altered the composition of riparian forests. However, research on the functional traits of dominant herbs experiencing flooding stress due to dam impoundment remains limited. Given the high plasticity of leaf traits and their susceptibility to environmental influences, this study focuses on riparian herbs along the Three Gorges Hydro-Fluctuation Zone (TGHFZ). Specifically, it investigates how six leaf physiological traits of leading herbs-carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and their stoichiometric ratios-adapt to periodic flooding in the TGHFZ using cluster analysis, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), multiple comparisons, Pearson correlation analysis, and principal component analysis (PCA). We categorized 25 dominant herb species into three plant functional

SUBMITTER: Liu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11192621 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature