Impact Of Species And Climate On Plant Si, Al, Fe And Phytolith Compositions

The variation of plant element and phytolith compositions with latitude and longitude is affectedby climate, and we don’t know the response mechanism of plant element and phytolith to climate.Recently, some satisfactory results have been obtained to analyze and explain the environmentcharacteristics and vegetation distribution using all kinds of climate indices at home and abroad. Chinais a desirable region to explore the relationship between spatial distribution of plant element andphytolith compositions and climatic factors because it is controlled by the subtropical monsoon climateand temperate monsoon climate with obvious precipitation and temperature gradients. This paperresearched the relationships by choosing55model plots and collecting201plant species samples.Different herbage plants in Shejichang, Inner Mongolia and C4plants throughout the country weresampled. C4plants consist of Setaria viridis, digitaria, Eleusine indica(L.) Gaertn, chloris virgataSwartz in the study. The content of silicon, aluminium and iron and carbon of phytoliths weredetermined.The results show that different species significantly affect the content of silicon, ratio of silicon toaluminum, ratio of silicon to ferrum and phytolith content, rather than the content of aluminum andferric in plants and ratio of aluminum to ferric in the same climate zone.By the correlational analyses respectively with latitude, temperature and precipitation in climatefactors, to the silicon, aluminum, ferrum, ratio of silicon to aluminum, ratio of silicon to ferrum andratio of aluminum to ferrum, our research show, in Setaria viridis, silicon, aluminum and ratio ofsilicon to aluminum show a good agreement to latitude, temperature and precipitation. in species ofchloris virgata Swartz, Silicon, ferrum and ratio of silicon to ferrum correlates with latitude, ferrum,aluminum and ratio of silicon to ferrum correlates with precipitation. No significant correlation betweenthree elements and climate factors in digitaria. Silicon, aluminum and ferrum have good correlationwith precipitation, ferrum has good correlation with latitude in Eleusine indica(L.) Gaertn.Correlation analysis between phytolith content and four climate factors indicates that in the Setariaviridis, phytolith content showed a good agreement to four climate factors. In species of chloris virgataSwartz, phytolith content showed a good agreement to latitude. In digitaria, phytolith content have goodcorrelation with latitude, longitude and temperature. In Eleusine indica(L.) Gaertn, phytolith content have good correlation with precipitation.In a word, in the same climate condition species have effects on plant silicon, ratio of silicon toferrum and phytolith content. Under different climatic conditions, silicon content of C4plants Setariaviridis have a significant correlation with latitude, temperature and precipitation, the aluminum contenthave a significant correlation with temperature, the silicon/aluminum ratio have significant correlationwith temperature, phytolith content have a significant correlation with four climate factors. The siliconcontent of chloris virgata Swartz have a significant correlation with latitude, the aluminum/iron ratiohave significant correlation with precipitation, the phytolith content have significant correlation withlatitude. phytolith content of digitaria have a significant correlation with latitude, longitude andprecipitation. Aluminum content of Eleusine indica(L.) Gaertn have significant correlation withprecipitation, its iron content have a significant correlation with the latitude, longitude, temperature andprecipitation, phytolith content have a significant correlation with precipitation. Our research hasimportant significance on the development of alternative indicators of climate change.