Ontogenetic variation in salinity tolerance and ecophysiology of coastal dune plants

Global climate change includes shifts in temperature and precipitation, increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and sea level rise, which will drastically impact coastal ecosystems. The aim of this study is to quantify salinity tolerance and to identify physiological mechanisms underlying tolerance across wholeplant ontogeny in two widespread native coastal plant species in Hawai'i, Jacquemontia sandwicensis (Convolvulaceae) and Sida fallax (Malvaceae).

At the seed, seedling, juvenile and mature ontogenetic stages, plants were exposed to high salinity watering treatments. Tolerance was assayed as the performance of stressed compared with control plants using multiple fitness metrics, including germination, survival, growth and reproduction. Potential physiological mechanisms underlying salinity tolerance were measured at each ontogenetic stage, including: photosynthesis and stomatal conductance rates, leaf thickness, leaf mass per area and biomass allocation.

Salinity tolerance varied between species and across ontogeny but, overall, salinity tolerance increased across ontogeny. For both species, salinity exposure delayed flowering. Physiological and morphological leaf traits shifted across plant ontogeny and were highly plastic in response to salinity. Traits enhancing performance under high salinity varied across ontogeny and between species. For J. sandwicensis, water use efficiency enhanced growth for juvenile plants exposed to high salinity, while chlorophyll content positively influenced plant growth under salinity in the mature stage. For S. fallax, transpiration enhanced plant growth only under low salinity early in ontogeny; high transpiration constrained growth under high salinity across all ontogenetic stages.

That salinity effects vary across ontogenetic stages indicates that demographic consequences of sea level rise and coastal flooding will influence population dynamics in complex ways. Furthermore, even coastal dune plants presumably adapted to tolerate salinity demonstrate reduced ecophysiological performance, growth and reproduction under increased salinity, highlighting the conservation importance of experimental work to better project climate change effects on plants.