Focal plants are considerably affected by their neighbouring plants,especially when growing in heterogeneous soils.A previous study on grasses demonstrated that soil heterogeneity and species composition affected plan...Focal plants are considerably affected by their neighbouring plants,especially when growing in heterogeneous soils.A previous study on grasses demonstrated that soil heterogeneity and species composition affected plant biomass and above-and belowground allocation patterns.We now tested whether these findings were similar for forbs.Three forb species(i.e.Spartina anglica,Limonium bicolor and Suaeda glauca)were grown in pots with three levels of soil heterogeneity,created by alternatively filling resource-rich and resource-poor substrates using small,medium or large patch sizes.Species compositions were created by growing these forbs either in monocultures or in mixtures.Results showed that patch size×species composition significantly impacted shoot biomass,root biomass and total biomass of forbs at different scales.Specifically,at the pot scale,shoot biomass,root biomass and total biomass increased with increasing patch size.At the substrate scale,shoot biomass and total biomass were higher at the large patch size than at the medium patch size,both in resource-rich and resource-poor substrates.Finally,at the community scale,monocultures had more shoot biomass,root biomass and total biomass than those in the two-or three-species mixtures.These results differ from earlier findings on the responses of grasses,where shoot biomass and total biomass decreased with patch size,and more shoot biomass and total biomass were found in resource-rich than resource-poor substrates.To further elucidate the effects of soil heterogeneity on the interactions between neighbour plants,we advise to conduct longer-term experiments featuring a variety of functional groups.展开更多
Aims Seed germinations react to their local growing conditions,but the impacts of soil heterogeneity on seed germinations are not well known.Methods Effects of three-dimensional soil heterogeneity on seed germinations...Aims Seed germinations react to their local growing conditions,but the impacts of soil heterogeneity on seed germinations are not well known.Methods Effects of three-dimensional soil heterogeneity on seed germinations of grasses species were explored,where two levels of such soil heterogeneity were created via alternatively filling nutrient-poor and nutrientrich substrate in pot in all directions.Patch sizes of the two heterogeneity levels are around 7.5 and 15 cm,respectively.Fifty seeds of each of the grasses species(Lolium perenne and Elymus nutans)were set either in these heterogeneous soils or in petri dishes with distilled water.Seed germinations of these species were daily recorded.Important Findings We found that pots with smaller patches had relatively lower germination rate,which is con sistent with our expectati on that shorter distance between nutrient-rich and nu trient-poor patches in pots with smaller patches allows plants to reduce their germination rates and delay their germination,in order to reduce the negative impacts of the strong variation of soil resources in these pots.Our results also revealed that pots with smaller patches yielded more heterogeneous seed germination,i.e.seed germinations highly diverged among these pots.These findings highlight that the realistic three-dimensional design can improve our understanding of seed germination as driven by soil spatial heterogeneity.展开更多
Aims Plants can benefit from heterogeneous environments via disproportionately increasing resource harvesting in resource-rich patches.Their initial growing positions with respect to resource patches may thus have imp...Aims Plants can benefit from heterogeneous environments via disproportionately increasing resource harvesting in resource-rich patches.Their initial growing positions with respect to resource patches may thus have important influences on their performance and relative competitive ability.Such impacts may differ between species with contrasting spatial architectures.However,the potential influence of initial growing positions in heterogeneous environment on plant growth and competition has largely been ignored.Methods We grew the phalanx plant Carex neurocarpa and the guerrilla plant Bolboschoenus planiculmis alone or in competition in a heterogeneous environment consisting of high-and low-nutrient soil patches.In treatments without competition,one ramet of each species was grown in either a high-or a low-nutrient patch in the heterogeneous environment.In treatments with competition,a ramet of the target species was grown in either a high-or a low-nutrient patch,and a ramet of the competitor species was grown in the same patch as the target species or an adjacent patch with a different nutrient level.Important Findings Without competition C.neurocarpa produced more biomass and ramets when initially grown in a high-nutrient patch than when initially grown in a low-nutrient patch.With competition,these differences disappeared.Consequently,competitive intensity on C.neurocarpa was higher when it initially grew in a high-nutrient patch than when it initially grew in a low-nutrient patch.These impacts were independent of the initial position of its competitor.By contrast,the initial positions of B.planiculmis did not influence its growth or competitive response.Therefore,in heterogeneous environments,initial growing positions of clonal plants may influence their performance in competition-free environments and may also affect their relative competitive ability,and these effects may depend on spatial architecture of the plants.展开更多
基金supported by the Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,Ministry of Education(KLBE2024002)a start-up fund from Lanzhou University(508000-561119213).
文摘Focal plants are considerably affected by their neighbouring plants,especially when growing in heterogeneous soils.A previous study on grasses demonstrated that soil heterogeneity and species composition affected plant biomass and above-and belowground allocation patterns.We now tested whether these findings were similar for forbs.Three forb species(i.e.Spartina anglica,Limonium bicolor and Suaeda glauca)were grown in pots with three levels of soil heterogeneity,created by alternatively filling resource-rich and resource-poor substrates using small,medium or large patch sizes.Species compositions were created by growing these forbs either in monocultures or in mixtures.Results showed that patch size×species composition significantly impacted shoot biomass,root biomass and total biomass of forbs at different scales.Specifically,at the pot scale,shoot biomass,root biomass and total biomass increased with increasing patch size.At the substrate scale,shoot biomass and total biomass were higher at the large patch size than at the medium patch size,both in resource-rich and resource-poor substrates.Finally,at the community scale,monocultures had more shoot biomass,root biomass and total biomass than those in the two-or three-species mixtures.These results differ from earlier findings on the responses of grasses,where shoot biomass and total biomass decreased with patch size,and more shoot biomass and total biomass were found in resource-rich than resource-poor substrates.To further elucidate the effects of soil heterogeneity on the interactions between neighbour plants,we advise to conduct longer-term experiments featuring a variety of functional groups.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2019YFC0507704)the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Science(XDA20100102)Yongjie Liu holds a start-up fund from Lanzhou University(508000-561119213).
文摘Aims Seed germinations react to their local growing conditions,but the impacts of soil heterogeneity on seed germinations are not well known.Methods Effects of three-dimensional soil heterogeneity on seed germinations of grasses species were explored,where two levels of such soil heterogeneity were created via alternatively filling nutrient-poor and nutrientrich substrate in pot in all directions.Patch sizes of the two heterogeneity levels are around 7.5 and 15 cm,respectively.Fifty seeds of each of the grasses species(Lolium perenne and Elymus nutans)were set either in these heterogeneous soils or in petri dishes with distilled water.Seed germinations of these species were daily recorded.Important Findings We found that pots with smaller patches had relatively lower germination rate,which is con sistent with our expectati on that shorter distance between nutrient-rich and nu trient-poor patches in pots with smaller patches allows plants to reduce their germination rates and delay their germination,in order to reduce the negative impacts of the strong variation of soil resources in these pots.Our results also revealed that pots with smaller patches yielded more heterogeneous seed germination,i.e.seed germinations highly diverged among these pots.These findings highlight that the realistic three-dimensional design can improve our understanding of seed germination as driven by soil spatial heterogeneity.
基金funded by the National Nature Science Foundation of China(grants 31570413 and 31870610)the Ten-Thousand-Talent Program of Zhejiang Province(2018R52016)the Joint Fund of Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation(Grant LTZ20C030001).
文摘Aims Plants can benefit from heterogeneous environments via disproportionately increasing resource harvesting in resource-rich patches.Their initial growing positions with respect to resource patches may thus have important influences on their performance and relative competitive ability.Such impacts may differ between species with contrasting spatial architectures.However,the potential influence of initial growing positions in heterogeneous environment on plant growth and competition has largely been ignored.Methods We grew the phalanx plant Carex neurocarpa and the guerrilla plant Bolboschoenus planiculmis alone or in competition in a heterogeneous environment consisting of high-and low-nutrient soil patches.In treatments without competition,one ramet of each species was grown in either a high-or a low-nutrient patch in the heterogeneous environment.In treatments with competition,a ramet of the target species was grown in either a high-or a low-nutrient patch,and a ramet of the competitor species was grown in the same patch as the target species or an adjacent patch with a different nutrient level.Important Findings Without competition C.neurocarpa produced more biomass and ramets when initially grown in a high-nutrient patch than when initially grown in a low-nutrient patch.With competition,these differences disappeared.Consequently,competitive intensity on C.neurocarpa was higher when it initially grew in a high-nutrient patch than when it initially grew in a low-nutrient patch.These impacts were independent of the initial position of its competitor.By contrast,the initial positions of B.planiculmis did not influence its growth or competitive response.Therefore,in heterogeneous environments,initial growing positions of clonal plants may influence their performance in competition-free environments and may also affect their relative competitive ability,and these effects may depend on spatial architecture of the plants.
