关键词: 铜陵, 铜尾矿场, 植被

Abstract: Phenotypic plasticity is an important mechanism for the adaptation of organisms to heterogeneous environments and for the enhancement of their survival ability. Trees of new variety “Jinguanxiapei” of Xanthoceras sorbifolium Bunge with similar structure were selected for this experiment in 2016, which consisted of a replicated diallel mating of controlled pollination and open pollination in four sites of three regions. Selfpollination was achieved by grafting individuals pollinated each other. Four experimental sites located in three regions of Beijing, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, consisting of three different latitudes and two different soil types in one of the three regions. After harvesting and drying the fruits, we measured 12 traits including fruit quality, shell quality, number of fruits, fruit rate, seed number, seed quality, seed yield, and single grain weight. Three phenotypic plasticity indicators were evaluated and finally the phenotypic plasticity index (PPI) was used to estimate the plasticity of each trait. The results showed that seed and fruit traits exhibited phenotypic plasticity across different latitudes and different soil conditions. With increasing latitude, the seed and fruit traits showed a positive response by increasing resource input to the fruits and seeds, showing increases in fruit volume, fruit number, fruit mass, fruit shell mass, seed mass and seed number. With the change of habitat from cinnamon soil to aeolian sandy soil, seed and fruit traits exhibited the response mechanism of specialization for scarce resource and priority of resource allocation to progeny. When the resources are relatively scarce, plants allocate the limited resources to a small amount of fruit, reduce the allocation of fruit shell resources, and allocate more resources to a small amount of seeds, so that the seeds are bigger to adapt to the environment of aeolian sandy soil. Such a reproductive strategy makes the species has wide distribution, strong adaptability, and strong resistance. Our results provide basic data for study of adaptation and evolution and scientific reference for breeding and cultivation ofX. sorbifolium.

Key words: Tongling, Copper tailing wasteland, Vegetation