Abstract
Clonal plants may face various types of resource heterogeneity in their natural habitats; as such, spatial or temporal resource heterogeneity can affect the growth of clonal plants. Clonal plants can concentrate their organs in a smaller area where resources are high would cause heterogeneity to increase competition between plants. Most studies on resource heterogeneity have investigated the response of plants under a single density or by manipulating a single resource. Few studies have tested the effects of the heterogeneous distribution of two covariable resources on plant growth and intraspecific competition. A greenhouse experiment was therefore conducted to study plant responses to the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the soil and water supply under a variety of plant densities (one, two, four or six plants per container). The perennial clonal herb Bolboschoenus yagara was grown under different combinations of water supply patterns, soil nutrient distribution types and plant densities while maintaining the total water and soil nutrient availability per container constant. Compared with that at a relatively high plant density, soil nutrient heterogeneity resulted in significantly less total plant biomass and less-modified morphological traits when the plant density is relative low. At the highest plant density, compared with the homogeneous soil treatments, the heterogeneous soil treatments significantly increased the total biomass and R/S ratio. Water supply patterns also clearly affected plant morphological traits at the highest plant density. Furthermore, soil heterogeneity significantly increased intraspecific competition intensity at low plant densities, but did not significantly affect intraspecific competition intensity at higher plant densities. Water heterogeneity had little impact on intraspecific competition. These results suggest that the growth performance and intraspecific competition of B. yagara are more strongly affected by soil nutrient distribution rather than by water supply patterns and that competition for soil nutrients may increase plant sensitivity to soil heterogeneity.
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Claims 10
Claim · model-written summary
At relatively low density, soil nutrient heterogeneity yielded less total biomass than at relatively high density.
- Taxon
- Bolboschoenus yagara
Bolboschoenus yagarat0 - Treatment
- soil nutrient heterogeneitye0
- Outcome
- total plant biomasse0
- Direction
- lesse0
- Qualifier
- when the plant density is relative lowe0
- Comparator
- a relatively high plant densitye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared with that at a relatively high plant density, soil nutrient heterogeneity resulted in significantly less total plant biomass and less-modified morphological traits when the plant density is relative low”
t0“Bolboschoenus yagara”
Claim · model-written summary
At relatively low density, soil nutrient heterogeneity produced less modification of morphological traits than at high density.
- Taxon
- Bolboschoenus yagaraBolboschoenus yagarat0
- Treatment
- soil nutrient heterogeneitye0
- Outcome
- morphological traitse0
- Direction
- less-modifiede0
- Qualifier
- when the plant density is relative lowe0
- Comparator
- a relatively high plant densitye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared with that at a relatively high plant density, soil nutrient heterogeneity resulted in significantly less total plant biomass and less-modified morphological traits when the plant density is relative low”
t0“Bolboschoenus yagara”
Claim · model-written summary
At the highest density, heterogeneous soil increased total biomass compared with homogeneous soil.
- Taxon
- Bolboschoenus yagaraBolboschoenus yagarat0
- Treatment
- heterogeneous soil treatmentse0
- Outcome
- total biomasse0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Qualifier
- At the highest plant densitye0
- Comparator
- homogeneous soil treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“At the highest plant density, compared with the homogeneous soil treatments, the heterogeneous soil treatments significantly increased the total biomass and R/S ratio”
t0“Bolboschoenus yagara”
Claim · model-written summary
At the highest density, heterogeneous soil increased the R/S ratio compared with homogeneous soil.
- Taxon
- Bolboschoenus yagaraBolboschoenus yagarat0
- Treatment
- heterogeneous soil treatmentse0
- Outcome
- R/S ratioe0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Qualifier
- At the highest plant densitye0
- Comparator
- homogeneous soil treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“At the highest plant density, compared with the homogeneous soil treatments, the heterogeneous soil treatments significantly increased the total biomass and R/S ratio”
t0“Bolboschoenus yagara”
Claim · model-written summary
Water supply patterns clearly affected morphological traits at the highest density.
- Taxon
- Bolboschoenus yagaraBolboschoenus yagarat0
- Treatment
- Water supply patternse0
- Outcome
- plant morphological traitse0
- Qualifier
- at the highest plant densitye0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Water supply patterns also clearly affected plant morphological traits at the highest plant density”
t0“Bolboschoenus yagara”
Claim · model-written summary
Soil heterogeneity significantly increased intraspecific competition intensity at low density.
- Taxon
- Bolboschoenus yagaraBolboschoenus yagarat0
- Treatment
- soil heterogeneitye0
- Outcome
- intraspecific competition intensitye0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Qualifier
- at low plant densitiese0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“soil heterogeneity significantly increased intraspecific competition intensity at low plant densities”
t0“Bolboschoenus yagara”
Claim · model-written summary
Soil heterogeneity did not significantly affect intraspecific competition intensity at higher density.
- Taxon
- Bolboschoenus yagaraBolboschoenus yagarat0
- Treatment
- soil heterogeneitye1
- Outcome
- intraspecific competition intensitye0
- Qualifier
- at higher plant densitiese0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“did not significantly affect intraspecific competition intensity at higher plant densities”
e1“soil heterogeneity significantly increased intraspecific competition intensity at low plant densities”
t0“Bolboschoenus yagara”
Claim · model-written summary
Water heterogeneity had little impact on intraspecific competition.
- Taxon
- Bolboschoenus yagaraBolboschoenus yagarat0
- Treatment
- Water heterogeneitye0
- Outcome
- intraspecific competitione0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Water heterogeneity had little impact on intraspecific competition”
t0“Bolboschoenus yagara”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors infer that soil nutrient distribution affects growth and intraspecific competition more strongly than water supply patterns.
- Taxon
- B. yagaraBolboschoenus yagarae0
- Treatment
- soil nutrient distributione0
- Outcome
- growth performance and intraspecific competitione0
- Comparator
- water supply patternse0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the growth performance and intraspecific competition of B. yagara are more strongly affected by soil nutrient distribution rather than by water supply patterns”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggest competition for soil nutrients may increase sensitivity to soil heterogeneity.
- Taxon
- Bolboschoenus yagaraBolboschoenus yagarat0
- Outcome
- plant sensitivity to soil heterogeneitye0
- Direction
- increasee0
- Qualifier
- competition for soil nutrientse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“competition for soil nutrients may increase plant sensitivity to soil heterogeneity”
t0“Bolboschoenus yagara”