Abstract:According to the fifth report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average global temperature has increased by 0.78℃ between 2003 and 2013, compared with that between 1900 and 1950. It is well known that boreal or high latitude areas are more sensitive to warming. The vegetations in the tundra ecosystem have adapted to low temperatures and grown in conditions of limited nutrition. However, temperatures can influence the absorption and content of the nutrients. The aim of this study is to examine the responses of the mineral elements in the leaves of tundra plants to warming. The hexagon open-top chamber system was used to increase the air and soil temperatures during the growing season (June to September). The mean air temperature was increased by 1.41℃, and the soil temperature at depths of 5 cm and 10 cm was increased by 1.74 and 1.78℃, respectively, during the growing season in 2013. The potassium (K), aluminum (Al), copper (Cu), iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), and calcium (Ga) contents in the soil and the leaves of Rhododendron aureum Pall, Vaccinium uliginosum, and Dryas octopetala var. Asiatica, three dominant plants in the Changbai Mountain tundra, were determined after warming treatment during three growing seasons. The results showed that:1) warming significantly affected the mineral element content in the soils. The Fe, Al, and K contents increased by 0.44%, 2.76%, and 4.88%, respectively. In contrast, the Cu, Mg, Mn, Zn, and Ga contents decreased by 2.63%, 5.07%, 7.46%, 5.07%, and 7.46%, respectively. 2) The K content in the leaves of Rhododendron aureum showed a significant seasonal change, with an average increase of 8.17% after warming during the whole growing season; however, this was not observed for the other mineral elements contents. Warming increased the Mg and Mn contents of the leaves of Rhododendron aureum by 66.39% and 14.73%, respectively, compared with the control. 3) The contents of K, Al, and Zn in the leaves of Vaccinium uliginosum, grown in the open-top chambers, were 15.24%, 5.45%, and 87.45% higher, respectively, than were those of the control. There were significant differences in the K, Al, Mg, Mn, Zn, and Ga contents in the Vaccinium uliginosum leaves for the different months. 4) Warming did not significantly affect all mineral elements' contents in the leaves of Dryas octopetala var. Asiatica. The K, Cu, and Ga contents of the leaves of Dryas octopetala var. Asiatica showed obvious seasonal fluctuations, ranging from 8.48 to 15.83mg/g, 0.14 to 0.30mg/g, and 8.91 to 11.41mg/g, respectively. Overall, the contents of the mineral elements in the different plant species responded differently to the warming. Although the warming increased the K, Al, and Fe contents in the soils, the leaves of Rh. aureum, V. uliginosum and Dr. octopetala var. Asiatica did not show a similar increasing trend. This finding indicates the hysteresis effects of the soil nutrition. Therefore, the mineral elements in the soils responded to warming in different ways, while the responses to warming of the mineral element in the leaves were specific to the plant species. Our results could improve the understanding of the effects of global warming on the nutritional dynamics in soils and the metabolism in the plants of the tundra.