Nutrient foraging ability promotes intraspecific competitiveness in the clonal plant Hydrocotyle vulgaris
Many plant species forage for nutrients by accumulating more biomass or ramets where soil nutrient availability is high. Nutrient foraging ability differs between species and between genotypes within species, can increase plant performance when nutrients are patchy, and may lead to differences in co...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Ecological Indicators |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X22003338 |
| _version_ | 1818010013802692608 |
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| author | Li-Min Zhang Peter Alpert Fei-Hai Yu |
| author_facet | Li-Min Zhang Peter Alpert Fei-Hai Yu |
| author_sort | Li-Min Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Many plant species forage for nutrients by accumulating more biomass or ramets where soil nutrient availability is high. Nutrient foraging ability differs between species and between genotypes within species, can increase plant performance when nutrients are patchy, and may lead to differences in competitive ability and have community-level effects. Effects of intraspecific variation in nutrient foraging ability could be particularly strong in clonal species, in which individual genotypes can form large clones and persist for long times. We tested the hypotheses that clones with greater foraging ability (1) have greater ability to compete with other clones of the same species but (2) experience greater competition within a clone. Sets of clonal fragments of five clones of the perennial, creeping herb Hydrocotyle vulgaris were grown alone, with a fragment of a different clone, or with a second fragment of the same clone in pots with a uniform or patchy distribution of soil nutrients. Consistent with the first hypothesis, foraging ability and between-clone competitiveness as measured by less negative competitive response were positively related when nutrients were patchy but not when they were uniform. Contrary to the second hypothesis, foraging and within-clone competitiveness were negatively related. Intraspecific competition both between and within clones could thus select for greater foraging ability. If this in turn increases ability to compete with other species, it may help explain the dominance of some clonal species. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T05:50:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0247ef56342641f7936b0a7e46314b5d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1470-160X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T05:50:02Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecological Indicators |
| spelling | doaj.art-0247ef56342641f7936b0a7e46314b5d2022-12-22T02:09:08ZengElsevierEcological Indicators1470-160X2022-05-01138108862Nutrient foraging ability promotes intraspecific competitiveness in the clonal plant Hydrocotyle vulgarisLi-Min Zhang0Peter Alpert1Fei-Hai Yu2Institute of Wetland Ecology & Clone Ecology/Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, Zhejiang Province, ChinaBiology Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USAInstitute of Wetland Ecology & Clone Ecology/Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, Zhejiang Province, China; Corresponding author.Many plant species forage for nutrients by accumulating more biomass or ramets where soil nutrient availability is high. Nutrient foraging ability differs between species and between genotypes within species, can increase plant performance when nutrients are patchy, and may lead to differences in competitive ability and have community-level effects. Effects of intraspecific variation in nutrient foraging ability could be particularly strong in clonal species, in which individual genotypes can form large clones and persist for long times. We tested the hypotheses that clones with greater foraging ability (1) have greater ability to compete with other clones of the same species but (2) experience greater competition within a clone. Sets of clonal fragments of five clones of the perennial, creeping herb Hydrocotyle vulgaris were grown alone, with a fragment of a different clone, or with a second fragment of the same clone in pots with a uniform or patchy distribution of soil nutrients. Consistent with the first hypothesis, foraging ability and between-clone competitiveness as measured by less negative competitive response were positively related when nutrients were patchy but not when they were uniform. Contrary to the second hypothesis, foraging and within-clone competitiveness were negatively related. Intraspecific competition both between and within clones could thus select for greater foraging ability. If this in turn increases ability to compete with other species, it may help explain the dominance of some clonal species.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X22003338Between-clone competitionGenotypeIntraspecific competitionSoil heterogeneityWithin-clone competition |
| spellingShingle | Li-Min Zhang Peter Alpert Fei-Hai Yu Nutrient foraging ability promotes intraspecific competitiveness in the clonal plant Hydrocotyle vulgaris Ecological Indicators Between-clone competition Genotype Intraspecific competition Soil heterogeneity Within-clone competition |
| title | Nutrient foraging ability promotes intraspecific competitiveness in the clonal plant Hydrocotyle vulgaris |
| title_full | Nutrient foraging ability promotes intraspecific competitiveness in the clonal plant Hydrocotyle vulgaris |
| title_fullStr | Nutrient foraging ability promotes intraspecific competitiveness in the clonal plant Hydrocotyle vulgaris |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nutrient foraging ability promotes intraspecific competitiveness in the clonal plant Hydrocotyle vulgaris |
| title_short | Nutrient foraging ability promotes intraspecific competitiveness in the clonal plant Hydrocotyle vulgaris |
| title_sort | nutrient foraging ability promotes intraspecific competitiveness in the clonal plant hydrocotyle vulgaris |
| topic | Between-clone competition Genotype Intraspecific competition Soil heterogeneity Within-clone competition |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X22003338 |
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