Figure 2
Variations in leaf water and corresponding leaf wax δDn-alkane values.
Variations of leaf water and corresponding leaf wax δDn-alkane values on whole leaves from Xi’an, Lantian and Binxian (a). Treatment on segmented leaf sections conducted from base to tip in monocotyledonous leaves and in base-to-tip and center-to-margin directions in dicotyledonous leaves, resulting difference in εwax-lw between dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous species. The difference in εwax-lw values derived from the quality-weighted mean εwax-lw values from segmented leaves was responsible for the difference in leaf wax δDn-alkane values of whole leaf (b). Conceptual diagram illustrating a model of hydrogen isotope transformation in terrestrial plants. The transformation comprises two processes: D-enrichment by evapotranspiration and D-depletion by biosynthetic processes10. The veinal structures inside the leaves (veinal water pathways, green box) control the isotopic gradients of leaf water and corresponding leaf wax (c).
