Temperature and Precipitation Significantly Affect Resource Allocation in Dioecious Plants: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Dioecious plants are often used in landscaping because of sex differences in individual appearance, resistance and ornamental value. Although a large number of studies have investigated the overall differences in resource allocation between different sexes in dioecious plants, the effects of environmental factors such as temperature and precipitation on resource allocation in sex-dimorphic plants are not fully understood. In order to explore the influencing factors, 39 works of literature on dioecious plant resource allocation published in English databases from 1992 to 2023 were selected, and the biomass data of dioecious plant stems, leaves, flowers and fruits from these pieces of literature were extracted. A total of 545 independent experimental groups were obtained, which were divided into four groups for analysis, and the data were analyzed using METAWIN 2.1 software. Four sets of data were used to quantitatively study the effects of different temperatures, precipitations and life forms on the resource allocation of dioecious plants of different sexes in large-scale space. The results showed that female plants invested more resources in reproductive growth and less resources in vegetative growth. In terms of total biomass, the average biomass of female plants was 3.09% higher than that of male plants, indicating that female plants reduced nutrient investment to compensate for reproductive investment in the process of resource allocation. Temperature and precipitation significantly affect the adaptability of male and female plants to environmental changes and the cooperative relationships among the stressed components. The vegetative biomass investment of female plants showed a positive correlation with the increase in temperature, while the reproductive biomass showed a negative correlation with the decrease. The average annual precipitation had little effect on the vegetative biomass of dioecious plants, but had a significant effect on reproductive biomass. The study of this trade-off relationship is helpful in revealing the relationship between vegetative growth and reproductive growth of plants, exploring the countermeasures of plant life history, and providing a scientific basis for urban landscaping and urban forest management.