New field wind manipulation methodology reveals adaptive responses of steppe plants to increased and reduced wind speed

Table 1 Effects of species and wind velocity treatments, and their interactions on plant traits

Plant traits	Species (S)		Wind treatments (T)		S × T
Plant traits	F	P	F	P	F	P
Morphology
Height	43.16	< 0.001	20.06	< 0.001	1.31	0.268
Projected crown area	146.12	< 0.001	32.33	< 0.001	3.09	0.012
Stem base diameter	204.97	< 0.001	10.51	< 0.001	3.00	0.013
Root length	71.48	< 0.001	10.35	< 0.001	1.59	0.167
Overall bifurcation ratio	10.52	< 0.001	2.26	0.113	3.35	0.007
Stepwise bifurcation ratio_(1:2)	13.18	< 0.001	3.29	0.044	3.47	0.005
Leaf length	359.76	< 0.001	4.81	0.012	1.03	0.413
Leaf area	51.88	< 0.001	0.73	0.485	0.29	0.939
Specific leaf area	248.26	< 0.001	0.08	0.921	0.30	0.937
Biomass and allocation
Total biomass	171.96	< 0.001	9.60	< 0.001	0.35	0.908
Shoot biomass	246.47	< 0.001	10.67	< 0.001	0.17	0.846
Root biomass	19.01	< 0.001	2.63	0.080	0.77	0.599
Root/shoot ratio	61.17	< 0.001	10.82	< 0.001	7.40	< 0.001
Mechanical properties
Stem lignin content	11.71	< 0.001	0.38	0.687	0.72	0.637
Stem cellulose content	5.41	0.002	1.67	0.196	7.90	< 0.001
Lignin/cellulose ratio	11.16	< 0.001	0.7	0.500	3.11	0.010
Second moment of area (I)	16.57	< 0.001	1.51	0.231	3.79	0.003
Young’s modulus (E)	10.93	< 0.001	10.63	< 0.001	4.52	0.001
Flexural stiffness (EI)	14.68	< 0.001	3.09	0.054	0.69	0.660

ISSN: 1746-4811