. 2012 Dec 14;7(12):e51750. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051750

Table 1. Plant functional traits of four functional groups across three vegetation types in the Xilin River Basin of Inner Mongolia grassland.

	Whole plant traits				Leaf traits						Root traits			Reproductive traits
PFGs	Plant height (cm)	Individual biomass (g)	RSR (g·g⁻¹)	SLR (g·g⁻¹)	Leaf N (%)	Leaf C:N ratio (g·g⁻¹)	SLA (cm²·g⁻¹)	Pn (µmol CO₂·m⁻²·s⁻¹)	PNUE (µmol CO₂·mol⁻¹·s⁻¹)	δ ¹³C (‰)	Root N (%)	Root C:N ratio (g·g⁻¹)	SRL (m·g⁻¹)	Seed mass (mg·seed⁻¹)	RA (%)
PB	42.42a	1.99a	0.66ab	2.50a	2.26b	20.96a	93.62b	14.42ab	120.96	−24.40	1.11a	38.17b	97.63	3.57	6.30b
PR	34.28ab	0.56ab	0.28b	0.87b	2.59ab	18.63ab	59.59b	16.50ab	104.04	−26.41	1.01a	45.20b	122.55	1.89	0.25c*
PF	32.72b	1.81a	1.52a	1.33b	2.32b	20.63a	114.21ab	9.80b	68.02	−26.45	1.12a	40.90b	95.54	3.51	12.07b
AB	18.91c	0.48b	0.49b	1.21b	2.79a	17.49b	133.64a	20.35a	139.74	−23.63	0.75b	67.62a	104.10	0.70	24.70a
P value	<0.001	0.044	0.018	0.025	0.021	0.092	0.009	0.112	0.182	0.19	<0.001	<0.001	0.846	0.333	0.005

Abbreviations: PFGs, plant functional groups; PB, perennial bunchgrasses; PR, perennial rhizomatous grasses; PF, perennial forbs; AB, annuals and biennials; RSR, root: shoot biomass ratio; SLR, stem: leaf biomass ratio; SLA, specific leaf area; Pn, net photosynthetic rate; PNUE, photosynthetic nutrient use efficiency; δ¹³C, Carbon isotope ratio; SRL, specific root length; RA, reproductive allocation. *, The dominant dispersal mode for perennial rhizomatous grass (i.e., Leymus chinensis) is rhizome, with rhizome biomass accounting for 30% of the total plant biomass. P values following one-way ANOVAs indicate differences in plant functional traits among four functional groups. Different lowercases represent significant differences among plant functional groups (LSD multiple-range tests, P<0.05). The sample sizes of functional traits (plant height, individual biomass, SLR, SLA, leaf N and C: N ratio, and root N and C: N ratio) are 27, 5, 104 and 23 for PB, PR, PF and AB, respectively across meadow, meadow steppe and typical steppes. The sample sizes of functional traits (RSR, Pn, PNUE, δ¹³C, SRL, seed mass and RA) are 5, 3, 10–21 and 8 for PB, PR, PF and AB, respectively in typical steppe.