The relationships between biomass allocation and plant functional trait

Understanding how plants allocate biomass to different organs is of high importance since biomass allocation among organs determines many growth processes. Biomass allocation among plant organs is driven by environmental conditions, while functional traits can also be potential covariates to understand the allocation of biomass. However, the relationships between functional traits and biomass allocation remain poorly known and studied. We investigated the relationships of two biomass allocation indicators, including leaf mass fraction (LMF) and leaf area ratio (LAR), with six economic traits and five hydraulic traits across 30 woody species. We found that LMF and LAR showed different relationships with economics traits. In addition, a significantly negative correlation was observed between LMF and leaf water potential at turgor loss point (TLP), but no significant relationship was found between LAR and TLP. Principal component analyses showed that LMF-related traits and LAR-related traits could be divided into two groups. Taken together, LMF is mainly related to draught tolerance while LAR mainly related to light capture. Although LMF and LAR are two significantly correlated biomass allocation indicators, they play different roles in the acclimation of plants. Researchers should focus on the different functions of these two indicators and the different relationships with other functional traits in the further research.