Leaf traits scaling relationships were compared in different months (May, June, July and August) in a temperate shrub species, Vitex negundo Linn. var. heterophylla (Franch.) Rehd. Leaf traits variation and the impact of environment were also studied. Our results showed that specific leaf area (SLA), leaf nitrogen content (Nmass), leaf phosphorus content (Pmass) and leaf chlorophyll content (Chlmass) were positively correlated, and all of the pairwise relationships showed a common standardized major axis (SMA) slope in different months. The variation of SLA, chlorophyll a content (Chlmass a), chlorophyll b content (Chlmass b), Chlmass a/b and maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm) were mainly habitat-dependent, while the variation of Pmass and Nmass/Pmass were mainly month-dependent. Redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to further explore the relationships between leaf traits and environmental factors. We found that plants under shade (the relative photosynthetic photon flux density was about 10%) developed light-capturing behavior at leaf level (higher SLA) and cellular level (higher Chlmass/Nmass and lower Chlmass a/b). The increased Nmass/Pmass with month was mainly resulted from the large absorption of soil nitrogen and the decrease of soil pH. In a word, our study indicates that species may not have fundamentally different carbon capture strategies in different months. Variation of different leaf traits are related to different environmental factors in the field.
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