COS 111-6 - Edapho-climatic factors drive intraspecific variation in Nannorrhops ritchieana (Griff) Aitch functional traits in the Hindu-Himalaya

Background/Question/Methods

There is an emerging trend to categorize potential plant species of an ecosystem based on their function. It is a promising strategy for knowing how a particular species respond to various climatic and edaphic factors in terms of functional traits. Functional traits reveal the response of a species to its environment. Based on our observations and quantification across a broader region we tested the hypothesis that edaphic and climatic factors control functional traits in Nannorrhops ritchieana (Griff) Aitchpalm. We quantified seven different functional traits in Nannorrhops ritchieana palm (Arecaceae) i.e., leaf length, leaf width, leaf number, leaf segments, fruit number, fruit diameter, seed diameter (SD) in relation to various edaphic and climatic factors. The edaphic factors were magnesium, calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, and climatic factors were precipitation, humidity and temperature across 63 transects (508 quadrats) in the Hindu-Himalayan ranges. We used correlation analysis using Ggcorrplot, Corplot and PerformanceAnalytics libraries of R-programing.

Results/Conclusions

We have correlated plant traits with edaphic and climatic factors. Leaf length and leaf width have a significantly positive correlation with calcium and a significantly negative correlation with potassium, humidity and temperature. Leaf number per plant increases with an increase in soil calcium, magnesium and specific humidity and precipitation while decreasing with an increase in temperature. The number of segments per leaf has a significant positive correlation with calcium and temperature and a negatively significant correlation with magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron and specific humidity. Fruit number, fruit diameter and seed diameter are significantly positively correlated with temperature, precipitation, calcium, magnesium and potassium and negatively correlated with sodium, and iron. Plant functional traits concepts and protocols can be widely applied to the Hindu-Himalayan flora to know their potential and contribution to global carbon sequestration. We elucidate that edaphic and climatic factors have a key role in the driving of different functional traits in Nannorrhops ritchieana forests. Furthermore, phylogenetic studies are required for Nannorrhops ritchieana forests to confirm that the variation in morphological traits is due to phylogenetic or environmental factors.