Responses of the Leaf Traits of Ten Common Green Space Plants in Nanjing to Urban Green Space Environments

Leaf functional traits are an important part of plant adaptive strategies and respond differently to different environments, but our understanding of how plants adapt to highly complex urban environments through coordinated changes in leaf functional traits is limited. In order to deeply explore the effects of different urban environments on the leaf functional traits of landscape plants, this study focused on ten common landscape plants in Nanjing, specifically, Euonymus japonicus, Pittosporum tobira, Loropetalum chinense, Photinia &times: fraseri, Acer palmatum, Euonymus japonicus &lsquo:Aurea-marginatus&rsquo:, Platanus acerifolia, Camphora officinarum, Ginkgo biloba, and Lagerstroemia indica. The study employed one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), two-way ANOVA, principal component analysis (PCA), and membership function comprehensive evaluation to explore the responses of green space plants to the environments of urban park green spaces (PAR), urban community green spaces (NL), and urban road green spaces (CR) and to analyze the impact of the trade-off strategies of plants in different green space environments based on leaf functional traits. The results showed that plant leaf functional traits and their adaptive strategies varied in different urban environments in Nanjing. The contents of LDMC, MDA, POD, and CAT in the ten plant species followed the order CR &gt: NL &gt: PAR, and SLA, SOD, SS, and total chlorophyll showed trends of PAR &gt: NL &gt: CR. The microstructures of the leaves of the ten plant species, such as SA, TUE, and TS, were evident in the expression of adaptive adjustments to the different green space environments. The principal component analysis and the comprehensive evaluation of the affiliation function of the indicators of the ten plant species revealed that the adaptability of the ten green space plants to the complex urban environment was as follows: Euonymus japonicus &lsquo:Aurea-marginatus&rsquo: &gt: Lagerstroemia indica &gt: Acer palmatum &gt: Photinia &times: fraseri &gt: Platanus acerifolia&gt: Camphora officinarum &gt: Loropetalum chinense &gt: Ginkgo biloba &gt: Euonymus japonicus &gt: Pittosporum tobira. The results of the study will help to further understand the layout, application, and maintenance of landscape plants in the context of urbanization and provide support for related theories.