Characteristics of leaf element contents for eight nutrients across 660 terrestrial plant species in China

We studied the contents of S,K,Na,Fe,Ca,SiO2,Al and Mn in 1781 leaf samples of 660 terrestrial plant species obtained from 120 sampling sites distributed across the country.The rank of the average amount for these elements is KCaSiO2NaSAlFeM,overall belonging to KCa type.Compared to the average amount of elements for the terrestrial plants in the world,Na in the plant leaves in China is higher.Except the fact that Ca in herbaceous plants is lower than woody plants,due to the need for fast growth the amount of S,K,Na,Fe,Ca,SiO2 in herbaceous plants woody plants,deciduous plants evergreen plants,broadleaf plants needle leaf plants.However,the amount of Mn is opposite to the sequence,while Al does not change much.S,K,and SiO2 are lowest in needle leaf forest;S,Na and Fe are highest in desert plants.There are significant negative correlations(P0.01)for Ca with SiO2 and Al,and for Mn with all other elements except Al.Except these negative correlations,the amount of elements in the plants are significantly(P0.01)positively correlated.Correlation analyses for the amount of elements in the leaves and their geographic locations show that the amount of S,K,Na,Fe,Ca,SiO2 in the leaves increase as the latitude increases,while Al and Mn decrease with latitude;S,K,Na,Fe,SiO2,Al decrease as the longitude increases,while Mn increases with longitude.Ca is not significantly correlated with the longitude.