文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Effects of Spatial Scale of Soil Heterogeneity on the Growth of a Clonal Plant Producing Both Spreading and Clumping Ramets

作者：Qian, Yong-Qiang[1] Luo, Dong[2] Gong, Gu[1] Han, Lei[1] Ju, Guan-Sheng[1] Sun, Zhen-Yuan[1]

第一作者：钱永强

通信作者：Qian, YQ[1]

机构：[1]Chinese Acad Forestry, Res Inst Forestry, State Key Lab Tree Genet & Breeding, Beijing 100091, Peoples R China;[2]China Agr Univ, Dept Ornamental Hort, Coll Agr & Biotechnol, Beijing 100193, Peoples R China

年份：2014

卷号：33

期号：2

起止页码：214-221

外文期刊名：JOURNAL OF PLANT GROWTH REGULATION

收录：;Scopus(收录号：2-s2.0-84901671600);WOS:【SCI-EXPANDED(收录号:WOS:000341502700008)】；

基金：This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 31100505 and 31070625), the National Non-profit Research Institutions of RIF (Grant RIF2010-11), and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Grant 6122031). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

语种：英文

外文关键词：Buchloe dactyloides; Clumping ramets; Intermediate growth form; Nutrient heterogeneity; Spatial scale; Spreading ramets

摘要：Soil nutrients are commonly heterogeneously distributed at different spatial scales. Although numerous studies have tested the effects of soil nutrient heterogeneity on growth of clonal plants producing either spreading ramets or clumping ramets, no study has examined the effects on the growth of clonal plants producing both spreading and clumping ramets and how spatial scale affects such effects. To test these effects, clones of Buchloe dactyloides, a stoloniferous clonal plant that produces both clumping and spreading ramets, were grown in six heterogeneous environments with different patch sizes and one homogeneous environment containing the same quantity of nutrients. Total biomass, total number of ramets, number of clumping ramets, number of spreading ramets, spacer length, or root: shoot ratio of the whole plants did not differ significantly among the seven treatments. However, at the patch level there were significant effects of patch size by nutrient level on biomass, number of ramets, number of spreading ramets, and number of clumping ramets, and these four variables were significantly larger in the nutrient-rich patches than in the nutrient- poor patches in the heterogeneous treatment with the largest patch size, but not in the other five heterogeneous treatments with smaller patch sizes. Neither nutrient level nor patch size significantly affected spacer length or root: shoot ratio. Based on our results, we propose that B. dactyloides can efficiently exploit nutrient-rich patches by a plastic response of clumping ramets and spreading ramets at larger spatial scales of soil heterogeneity but not at smaller ones.