Coordination Between Bioelements Induce More Stable Macroelements Than Microelements in Wetland Plants

Abstract

Elements are the basic substances that make up living organisms, and the element composition in plants quantitatively reflect the adaptation of plants to environment. However, the drivers that constitute the species-specific plant elementome, as well as the bivariate bioelemental correlations in determining the stability of different bioelements are yet unclear. Based on 1058 leaf observations of 84 plant species from 232 wetlands across large environmental gradients, we found that bioelements with higher concentration were more stable and evolutionary constrained. We proposed a stability of well-coordinated elements hypothesis, suggesting that bioelements that coordinate well in driving certain physiological functions constrain each other, thus maintaining relatively stable ratios in plants. In contrast, those functionally independent bioelements fluctuate greatly with environmental nutrient availability. Cold and saline stresses decreased plant stoichiometric network connectivity, complexity, and stability. Our research filled the gap in study of wetland plant elementome, and provided new evidences of plant-environment interactions in regions sensitive to climate change.

Keywords: Tibetan plateau; ecological stoichiometry; evolutionary conservatism; functional biogeography; stability of well‐coordinated elements hypothesis.