Effects of a spatially heterogeneous nutrient distribution on the growth of clonal wetland plants
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(2020) 20:59 Yu et al. BMC Ecol https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-020-00327-1
Open Access
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effects of a spatially heterogeneous nutrient distribution on the growth of clonal wetland plants Hongwei Yu1,2 , Ligong Wang1, Chunhua Liu1*, Dan Yu1 and Jiuhui Qu2,3
Abstract Background: Clonal plants are important in maintaining wetland ecosystems. The main growth types of clonal plants are the guerrilla and phalanx types. However, little is known about the effects of these different clonal growth types on plant plasticity in response to heterogeneous resource distribution. We compared the growth performance of clonal wetland plants exhibiting the two growth forms (guerrilla growth form: Scirpus yagara, Typha orientalis, Phragmites australis and Sparganium stoloniferum; phalanx growth form: Acorus calamus, Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani and Butomus umbellatus) grown in soil substrates that were either homogeneous or heterogeneous but had the same total amount of nutrients. Results: We found that the morphological traits (plant height, ramet number, spacer diameter and length) and biomass accumulation of the guerrilla clonal plants (T. orientalis) were significantly enhanced by heterogeneity, but those of the phalanx clonal plants (A. calamus, S. tabernaemontani and B. umbellatus) were not. The results showed that the benefits of environmental heterogeneity to clonal plants may be correlated with the type of clonal structure. Conclusions: Guerrilla clonal plants, which have a dispersed, flexible linear structure, are better suited to habitats with heterogeneous resources. Phalanx clonal plants, which form compact structures, are better suited to habitats with homogeneous resources. Thus, wetland clonal species with the guerrilla clonal structure benefit more from soil nutrient heterogeneity. Keywords: Clonal wetland plants, Guerrilla growth form, Phalanx growth form, Heterogeneity, Homogeneity Background Wetlands are unique areas that have characteristics of both land and water ecosystems and are among the world’s most productive environments [30]. Clonal growth forms dominate in many major biomes worldwide and are successful in wetland plant communities; thus, clonal plants play important roles in maintaining wetland ecosystems [25, 29, 31]. For example, clonal plants cover 66.69% of wetlands in China [31]. *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 The National Field Station of Freshwater Ecosystem of Liangzi Lake, Department of Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Emergent macrophytes have been shown to play an important role in wetland ecosystems [9, 37]. In aquatic habitats, vegetative propagation predominates among plant taxa; for instance, the majority of wetland species are rhizomatous clonal plants [32]. Clonal plants have special clonal life-history traits: I. trade-offs between clonal growth and reproduction [14]; II. clonal growth forms [34]; III. clonal plasticity [35]; and IV. clonal integr
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