气候变暖和大气氮沉降增加会改变北方泥炭地的养分状态,从而影响其植被的物种组成和固碳功能.酚类物质是植物用于防御植食性动物和适应环境的次生代谢产物,由于其具有抗分解的特性,在调节泥炭地碳动态方面也起着重要的作用.然而,北方泥炭地不同功能型植物的酚含量及其如何随氮有效性变化尚不清楚.本论文通过测定中国东北大兴安岭地区18个泥炭地共11种植物的叶片总酚含量(Total Phenols Contents,TPC),研究了它们随叶片氮、磷含量的变化关系,并探讨了其潜在机制.结果表明,灌木叶片TPC高于草本植物,说明生长较快且无菌根的草本植物比生长较慢且具有菌根的灌木对防御的碳投入较少.灌木叶片TPC随叶片氮含量增加而降低,表明其防御碳投入随氮有效性增加而减少.相反,草本植物叶片TPC随氮含量增加而增加,随磷含量增加而减少,由于草本植物相对于灌木具有较强的氮限制和较弱的磷限制,草本植物防御碳投入可能随养分有效性增加而增加.我们的结果表明,泥炭地在氮有效性随气候变暖和氮沉降增加而增加的背景下,灌木将投入相对较多的碳用于生长而非防御,而草本植物则与之相反.这些发现将有助于对北方泥炭地灌木入侵及其资源竞争机制的理解.“,”Aims Climate warming and increasing nitrogen(N)deposition have influenced plant nutrient status and thus plant carbon(C)fixation and vegetation composition in boreal peatlands.Phenols,which are secondary metabolites in plants for defense and adaptation,also play important roles in regulating peatland C dynamics due to their anti-decomposition properties.However,how the phenolic levels of different functional types of plants vary depending on nutrient availability remain unclear in boreal peatlands.Methods Here,we investigated total phenols contents(TPC)and total tannins contents in leaves of 11 plant species in 18 peatlands of the Great Hing'an Mountains area in northeastern China,and examined their variations with leaf N and phosphorus(P)and underlying mechanisms.Important Findings Shrubs had higher TPC than graminoids,indicating less C allocation to defense and less uptake of organic N in faster-growing and nonmycorrhizal graminoids than in slower-growing and mycorrhizal shrubs.For shrubs,leaf TPC decreased with increasing N contents but was not influenced by changing leaf phosphorus(P)contents,which suggested that shrubs would reduce the C investment for defense with increasing N availability.Differently,leaf TPC of graminoids increased with leaf N contents and decreased with leaf P contents.As graminoids are more N-limited and less P-limited,we inferred that graminoids would increase the defensive C investment under increased nutrient availability.We concluded that shrubs would invest more C in growth than in defense with increasing N availability,but it was just opposite for graminoids,which might be an important mechanism to explain the resource competition and encroachment of shrubs in boreal peatlands in the context of climate warming and ever-increasing N deposition.