About the Authors

Jushan Liu

Affiliations Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, Institute of Grassland Science, Northeast Normal University, and Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Changchun, P.R. China

Yuguang Bai

yuguang.bai@usask.ca

Affiliation Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

Eric G. Lamb

Affiliation Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

Dale Simpson

Affiliation Natural Resources Canada, Atlantic Forestry Centre, Fredericton, Canada

Guofang Liu

Affiliation State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China

Yongsheng Wei

Affiliations Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, College of Life Sciences, Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University, Yangling, P.R. China

Deli Wang

Affiliation Institute of Grassland Science, Northeast Normal University, and Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Changchun, P.R. China

Daniel W. McKenney

Affiliation Natural Resources Canada, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, Sault Ste. Marie, Canada

Pia Papadopol

Affiliation Natural Resources Canada, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, Sault Ste. Marie, Canada

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: YGB JSL. Performed the experiments: YGB JSL. Analyzed the data: YGB JSL EGL GFL YSW DLW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DS DM PP. Wrote the paper: YGB JSL EGL.