Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Biomass allocation strategy of plants under urban heat island

Author(s):

Ya-ting Wang ^{1, 2}, Dan Hu ¹*, Lian-lian Fan ^{2, 3}

Recieved Date: 2013-06-20, Accepted Date: 2013-09-28

Abstract:

Plants in urban eco-system are exposed to high temperature condition for a long term, presenting different adjusting strategy. Urban temperature condition changes the hydrothermal environment, sequently affecting the produce and ecological service function of urban vegetation. In this paper, in order to investigate the influence of urban heat island (UHI) on urban plants, two typical urban landscape plants, namely Buxus megistophylla Lévl and Syzygium aromaticum, were chosen. Experiments were taken to investigate the individual level responses of these two common plants to UHI effect. Experiment results demonstrated that in experimental sites the largest daytime temperature difference in summer could reach 5.11°C and about 2°C in spring and autumn. Even though Buxus megistophylla Lévl and Syzygium aromaticum were different functional plants, their responses to increased temperature were nearly consistent and no significant species differences were observed. In spring and autumn, variation range in temperature was small, but the temperature was still optimum for plant growth. Therefore, in these two seasons, plants in UHI showed a significantly stronger growth rate than those in reference site (RS). Then in summer temperature of heat island site could reach 35°C, which was harmful to plant growth. In July with high temperature, plants did not present an obvious increase of growth rate. Shoot biomass of B. megistophylla Lévl and S. aromaticum in UHI was obviously higher than that in RS. In order to utilise beneficial environment to fix carbon better, biomass distribution in shoot and leaf levels of plants both presented an optima strategy. Plants tended to distribute more biomass to photo-synthesis tissues, but less to structure tissues in UHI. By this distribution mode, plants increased effective leaf areas of photo-synthesis for receiving more energy.

Keywords:

Buxus megistophylla Lévl, Syzygium aromaticum, urban heat island, foliar production, biomass allocation, physiological response

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2013
Volume: 11
Issue: 3&4
Category: Environment
Pages: 2309-2313

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