Deposited in plant cells and their intercellular space,phytoliths,a special form of silica,could be used to determine information on plant structure and physiology especially their size and content.With the hypothesis that phytolith in plant would change under variable climate and environment,the dominant plant species in Songnen grassland,guinea grass(Leymus chinensis),was treated by an open-top chamber(OTC) to elevate CO2 concentration,infrared heaters,and artificial nitrogen(N) addition for three years from 2006–2008.Phytoliths were extracted by wet-ashing method and analyzed by variance analysis and so on.We found that the responses to elevated CO2 are complicated,and warming is positive while N addition is negative to the deposition of phytoliths in L.chinensis leaves.Especially,warming could reduce the negative impact of N addition on phytolith in L.chinensis.The short cell's taxonomic in graminea is significant because of no disappearance with simulated environmental changes.The phytolith originated in the long cell and plant intercellular space are more sensitive to elevated CO2 concentration,warming,and N addition,and could become some new indicators for environmental changes.In conclusion,different phytolith types have various responses to simulated warming,N addition and elevated CO2 concentration.
LI BoFENG YingyingGUO JixunJIE DongmeiSHI Lianxuan
The Changbai Mountains,located in the temperate monsoon climate zone of East Asia,is an ideal loca-tion for the research on timberline response to global changes.In this study,the topsoils were collected from different vertical vegetation zones on the northern slope of the Changbai Mountains,Northeast China in August 2009,and phytoliths in the soil samples were extracted by using wet oxidation method and identified with Motic 2.0 microscope in laboratory.The results show that phytoliths are abundant in the topsoils of the study area.The herbal phytoliths are primarily composed of elongated,tooth-shaped,point-shaped and hat-shaped phytoliths,as well as a small amount of fan-shaped and square-shaped ones.The elongated,tooth-shaped,point-shaped and hat-shaped phytoliths are representative of cold climate,while fan-shaped and square-shaped ones are representative of warm and humid climate.In the conifer broadleaved mixed forest zone,coniferous forest zone and broadleaf forest zone,there are close correlations between vegetation and woody phytoliths in the topsoils,indicating that the woody plants of a region can be reconstructed from the woody phytolith assemblages in the topsoils.Meanwhile,the topsoil phytolith assemblages can also be used to reconstruct the understory herbs effectively.The phytolith assemblages in the topsoils of the forest community and herbal community differ significantly,which can help indicate the historical location of the timberline.
