Variations in carbon isotopic ratios (δ 13C) of C3 plants and distribution of C4 plants were investigated along an altitudinal transect on the eastern slope of Mount Gongga, and the environmental effects on them were discussed. It is shown that plants with C4 photosynthetic pathway mainly occur at altitudes below 2100 m a.s.l., suggesting that the low summer temperature is responsible for the distributional pattern. In addition, δ 13C of C3 plants increases with elevation at the region above 2000 m a.s.l. with the characteristics of humid climate, and the increase rate in δ 13C for C3 plants is about 1.3‰ per kilometer. Temperature determines the altitudinal trend of δ 13C.
LI JiaZhu1, WANG GuoAn2, LIU XianZhao1, HAN JiaMao3, LIU Min4 & LIU XiaoJuan2 1 College of Geography and Planning, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, China
Through the systematic investigation of nitrogen isotope composition (δ15N) in modern plants in Dongling Mountain in Beijing,the characteristics of δ15N in plants,the differences of δ15N among plants with different functional types,and the altitudinal trends of plant δ15N values revealed the environmental effects on δ15N.Our results are:(1) the values of δ15N of plants in Dongling Mountain range between -8.0‰ and 14.0‰,with an average value of -1.03‰;(2) δ15N values are variant among different plant functional types.Generally,the δ15N of shrubs are smaller than that of trees,and larger than that of herbaceous plants.The main reason may be the selective absorption of variant nitrogen resource with different δ15N values in soil;(3) there is a second-order polynomials relationship between the altitudes and the average δ15N values of plants,which shows a negative and positive correlation below and above 1350 m a.s.l.,respectively.This indicates that the precipitation is a main controlling factor of plant 15N fractionation for the former,and the temperature for the latter;(4) three different,i.e.,positive,negative,and no significant,correlations are performed between δ15N of individual species and altitudes.This may be related to different inherited characteristics and the process of nitrogen metabolize;and (5) variant altitudinal trends of plant δ15N are associated with different 15N composition of soil at different altitude,for which the key influencing factors are the changing temperature and precipitation with altitude rather than nitrogen content in leaf.
