4.4 Summarizes and Perspectives
Gradients of environmental stress and disturbance are important drivers
of morphological and physiological variability for P. australisin the Yellow River Delta. The response of functional traits to the
environment could be summarized as follows: (1) The relationships
between functional traits and electrical conductivity were generally
linear and logarithmic, indicating that soil salinity was the main
factor that influenced the functional traits of P. australis in
the Yellow River Delta. (2) The plant morphological traits had higher
plasticity based on the coefficients of variation, which were much
higher than 20%. However, compared with the morphological traits, the
coefficients of variation for physiological leaf traits were lower than
20%. This indicated that physiological traits are more stable than
morphological traits in response to environmental variables. (3) The
variability of strategies for P. australis indicated that in the
high-salinity area, competition (C) and stress tolerator (CS) were the
main strategies that affected the growth and distribution for P.
australis. With the decrease of environmental stress, the mainly
strategy gradually moved from S to C. Further studies, including studies
focused on underground traits and genetics, are needed to clearly
understand different responses to related ecotypes.