• ISSN 1008-505X
  • CN 11-3996/S
XU Hui-min, CAI Ming-lei, LI Yang-yang. Leaf economic and hydraulic traits and their correlation under varying nitrogen and water supplies in maize[J]. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizers, 2020, 26(2): 223-232. DOI: 10.11674/zwyf.19105
Citation: XU Hui-min, CAI Ming-lei, LI Yang-yang. Leaf economic and hydraulic traits and their correlation under varying nitrogen and water supplies in maize[J]. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizers, 2020, 26(2): 223-232. DOI: 10.11674/zwyf.19105

Leaf economic and hydraulic traits and their correlation under varying nitrogen and water supplies in maize

  • Objectives The variation and tradeoff of leaf economic and hydraulic traits are the strategy of plant adapting to environment, which is the base of constructing water-carbon modeling. The variation and correlation between leaf economic and hydraulic traits as well as their association with plant performance under different N and water supplies in maize were studied, aiming to elucidate the relationship between leaf economic and hydraulic traits in response to different nutrient and water availabilities at the intraspecific level, and evaluate the possibility of using these leaf traits to predict whole plant biomass and water use.
    Methods A pot experiment with completely randomized two-factor-three level design was conducted. The three levels of urea application were no N (N0), N 0.2 g/kg dry soil before planting (N1), and N 0.2 g/kg dry soil before planting and during 5-leaf stage (0.4 g N in total, N2); the three watering levels were adequate irrigation (W2), moderate water stress (W1) and severe water stress (W0), the corresponding soil moisture in W2, W1 and W0 treatments was 75%–80%, 50%–55% and 30%–35% of field capacity, and lasted about 3 weeks. The measured leaf economic traits involved leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf thickness (LT), tissue density (TD), mass-based N content (Nmass) and area-based N content (Narea); the measured hydraulic traits included vein density (VD), stomatal density (SD), stomatal length (SL) and maximum stomatal conductance to water (gwmax).
    Results N fertilizer significantly increased LMA, Nmass, Narea, VD, SD, SL and gwmax (P < 0.05), and irrigation significantly increased LMA, TD and Narea (P < 0.05). LMA and TD were larger under W2 than under W0 in all the three N levels, but SD and gwmax were larger in W2 than W0 treatment only under N0 and N1 levels, and lower in W2 than W0 treatment under N2 level, the interactions of nitrogen and water on LMA, TD, SD and gwmax were significant (P < 0.05). Leaf economic traits were closely coupled with hydraulic traits, in details, Nmass were positively correlated with SD and gwmax, Narea was positively correlated with gwmax (P < 0.05). The major leaf traits affecting biomass were Narea, Nmass and VD, those affecting water consumptions were Narea, Nmass, gwmax and LT, those affecting water use efficiency were Nmass, LMA, LT and VD.
    Conclusions Leaf N content is closely coordinated with stomatal density and the maximum stomatal conductance to water. This coordination may enhance the adaptation of plants to different resource availabilities. Leaf traits can be used to predict whole plant performance under different N and water supplies in maize.
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