Effects of small-herbivore disturbance on the clonal growth of two perennial graminoids in alpine meadows
- PDF / 1,485,375 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 91 Downloads / 191 Views
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Effects of small‑herbivore disturbance on the clonal growth of two perennial graminoids in alpine meadows Qian Wang1,2,3 · Zheng Gang Guo1,2,3 · Xiao Pan Pang1,2,3 · Jing Zhang1,2,3 · Huan Yang1,2,3 Received: 19 May 2020 / Accepted: 27 August 2020 © Swiss Botanical Society 2020
Abstract Graminoids are typically the dominant plants in certain grassland communities, and their clonal growth is considered an important method of evaluating their adaptation to environmental disturbances. Whether disturbances caused by small burrowing herbivores influence clonal growth in graminoids is not well documented. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of disturbances by small burrowing herbivores, the plateau pika, on the clonal growth of the tussockforming Kobresia pygmaea and the rhizomatous K. humilis across three sites. This study showed that disturbance by plateau pikas increased the shoot number, spacer number and tiller bud number per clonal fragment of both the tussock-forming K. pygmaea and the rhizomatous K. humilis across three sites. This study also showed that disturbance by plateau pikas increased the rhizome branch number, rhizome length, and rhizome bud number per clonal fragment of rhizomatous K. humilis at each site, while the effects of disturbance by plateau pikas on the rhizome branch number, rhizome length, and rhizome bud number per clonal fragment of the tussock-forming K. pygmaea were different among the three sites. These results suggested that disturbance by plateau pikas benefits for current and potential population recruitment in the tussock-forming K. pygmaea and the rhizomatous K. humilis due to the resulting higher shoot number and tiller bud number per clonal fragment. Keywords Clonal growth · Tussock-forming plant · Rhizomatous plant · Alpine meadow · Plateau pika disturbances
Introduction Most natural grasslands are dominated by perennial graminoids (Gibson 2009). The reproduction of dominant perennial graminoids often shapes plant community succession (Pottier and Evette 2010) by regulating the population regeneration of these graminoids (Rusch et al. 2010). The dominant perennial graminoids mainly use vegetative * Zheng Gang Guo [email protected] 1
Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, People’s Republic of China
2
Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry, Ministry of Education, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, People’s Republic of China
3
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro‑Ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, People’s Republic of China
reproduction to assemble their population and regenerate in natural grasslands (Benson and hartnett 2006; Gao et al. 2012), since thick grassland litter often limits seed germination, seedling emergence and establis
Data Loading...
