Convergent evidence for the temperature-dependent emergence of silicification in terrestrial plants

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 1155 - 13
• Main Authors: Pang, Zhihao, de Tombeur, Félix, Hartley, Sue E., Zohner, Constantin M., Nikolic, Miroslav, Violle, Cyrille, Mo, Lidong, Crowther, Thomas W., Guan, Dong-Xing, Luo, Zhongkui, Zhu, Yong-Guan, Wang, Yuxiao, Zhang, Ping, Peng, Hongyun, Strömberg, Caroline A. E., Nikolic, Nina, Liang, Yongchao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 29.01.2025; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/181; 631/449; 704/158; 704/47; Biogeochemistry; Biological Evolution; Biology; Botanics; Chemical Sciences; China; Chlorophyll; Climate change; Cold; Environmental Sciences; Heat; High temperature; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humidity; Leaves; Life Sciences; Low temperature; multidisciplinary; Oryza - metabolism; Other; Plant Leaves - chemistry; Plant Leaves - metabolism; Plants - metabolism; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Silicon; Silicon - metabolism; Temperature; Temperature dependence; Triticum - metabolism; Variation; Vegetal Biology; China; Evolution; Biogeochemistry; Ecology; Plant sciences
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56438-0

Research on silicon (Si) biogeochemistry and its beneficial effects for plants has received significant attention over several decades, but the reasons for the emergence of high-Si plants remain unclear. Here, we combine experimentation, field studies and analysis of existing databases to test the role of temperature on the expression and emergence of silicification in terrestrial plants. We first show that Si is beneficial for rice under high temperature (40 °C), but harmful under low temperature (0 °C), whilst a 2 °C increase results in a 37% increase in leaf Si concentrations. We then find that, globally, the average distribution temperature of high-Si plant clades is 1.2 °C higher than that of low-Si clades. Across China, leaf Si concentrations increase with temperature in high-Si plants (wheat and rice), but not in low-Si plants (weeping willow and winter jasmine). From an evolutionary perspective, 77% of high-Si families (>10 mg Si g −1 DW) originate during warming episodes, while 86% of low-Si families (<1 mg Si g −1 DW) originate during cooling episodes. On average, Earth’s temperature during the emergence of high-Si families is 3 °C higher than that of low-Si families. Taken together, our evidence suggests that plant Si variation is closely related to global and long-term climate change. The evolutionary reasons for the variation in silicon concentrations across plant families remain unclear. This paper provides new evidence that silicon variation is closely linked to global and long-term climate change, suggesting temperature could have driven the evolution of plant silicification.