Clonal plants and plant species diversity in wetland ecosystems in China

Shen

Diversity and Distributions

et al. 2005

Self Cite

108

104

Plant invasions have been attracting increasing attention from ecologists because of their worldwide environmental impacts and huge economic costs. Research on the characteristics of the recipient regions is essential for understanding the process of plant invasion. However, few previous studies on invasibility of habitats include social factors, although human activities are critical in the process of plant invasion. China is a vast country with high plant species diversity and a long history of introduction of exotic plant species and is particularly vulnerable to invasive plant species. Alien plant species are widespread in the country. Therefore, the study of invasive plants in China is urgent in practice and theoretically important for developing invasion ecology. For the present study, 126 species were selected to represent the major invasive plant species in China. We then collected data on their species richness in 31 provincial administrative units of China and performed Spearman rank correlations between species richness and possible natural and socio-economic factors. We found that socio-economic factors, such as human density and GDP, correlated positively with the species richness of invasive plants in China. In conjunction with the natural and socio-economic correlations in the study of regional distribution pattern of the major invasive plants, we discussed the factors influencing the regional distribution pattern of the major invasive plants in China. We suggest that native plant species richness was mainly determined by the natural conditions of the regions, while invasive species richness was influenced by natural conditions and human disturbance together.

“…We also classified the invasive plants into clonal and nonclonal plants (Song & Dong, 2002) and did the same correlation analyses with proportion of invasive species that were clonal.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invasive alien plant species in China: regional distribution patterns

Shen

Diversity and Distributions

et al. 2005

Self Cite

108

104

“…It has been postulated, however, that phalanx plants usually are competitively superior, whereas guerilla plants do better in disturbed conditions (Eriksson and Jerling 1990, Fahrig et al 1994, Stuefer et al 2002). Additionally, according to a comparative study of wetlands across China, guerilla plants tend to be more common in wetlands of cold and dry environments in comparison with wetlands of wet and warm environments (Song and Dong 2002), and they tend to occur later rather than early in succession as evidenced from various man‐made habitats in central Europe (Prach and Pyšek 1994), or from the course of revegetation following deglaciation in Kamchatka (Doležal et al 2008). On the other hand, phalanx plants are more abundant in high elevation, dry and nutrient poor regions of China (Song et al 2002) than in habitats with opposite conditions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary and organismic constraints on the relationship between spacer length and environmental conditions in clonal plants

Klimešová

Doležal

Sammul

2011

Oikos

The rate of lateral spread of clonal plants is considered a plastic trait that responds directly to environmental conditions. However, this response is likely constrained by evolutionary history and other species attributes. Here we ask how the relationships between lateral spread and the distribution of herbaceous plant species in different environments are influenced by the type of spacer (epigeogenous versus hypogeogenous rhizome), its persistence (integrator versus splitter), and the height and phylogeny of the plant. Analysis of spacer length of 367 species from temperate to arctic Europe revealed that other plant characteristics modulate the relationship between spacer length and environmental conditions. While plants with epigeogenous rhizomes, which have usually shorter spacers than hypogeogenous rhizomes, were associated with illuminated habitats, plants with hypogeogenous rhizomes were associated with warm habitats. These relationships were also shown within the specific rhizome type, as within the group of species with epigeogenous rhizomes, those having short spacers were associated with more light. The trend toward long spacers in warm environment was detected within both epigeogenous and hypogeogenous rhizome bearing species. Splitters were found to be associated with wet, nutrient rich habitats irrespective of rhizome type. When plant height was accounted for by using the ratio of spacer length to plant height (L:H) instead of absolute spacer length, no relationship with environmental variables was found until phylogenetic relationships among the species were taken into account. This implies that overall variability in L:H ratio in the dataset masked trends common for different taxonomic groups. Future comparative studies relating particular clonal growth forms or individual traits to environmental conditions should consider the constraints arising from other growth characteristics and evolutionary history of the subject species.

“…With increasing resources, the clonal plants allocate more nutrients to the formation of aboveground parts, and the population density, cover, biomass growth, spatial distribution intensity and aggregation scale are significantly increased to improve the utilization rate of regional resources and occupation [62]. When subjected to environmental stress, clonal plants allocate more nutrients to the formation of underground parts, which may be far away from the ortet in order to find necessary resources, leading to non-aggregated spatial distribution patterns [4,63]. These results are similar to those obtained for Leymus chinensis in Inner Mongolia, China, Melica przewalskyi in Gansu province, China, and Elymus repens in Southeast France [58,64,65].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They have strong environmental adaptability due to a series of life history traits, such as clonal plasticity, clonal integration, division of labor, foraging behavior and coordinate resource allocation among organs and tissues [1][2][3]. Clonal plants are widely distributed in various ecosystems and play an important ecological role, especially in wetlands, grasslands, waters and other special and fragile ecosystems [4,5]. There exists a discrepancy in the spatial adaptability of clonal plants and non-clonal plants due to their different intrinsic nature, spatial mobility, method of reproduction and resource sharing [6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-Scale Distribution Patterns of Phragmites australis Populations Across an Environmental Gradient in the Salt Marsh Wetland of Dunhuang, China

Jiao

et al. 2020

Sustainability

The spatial distribution pattern of plants often reflects their ecological adaptation strategy and is formed by their long-term interaction with environmental factors. In this paper, the clonal plant, Phragmites australis, was investigated across environmental gradients, including the wet zone, the transitional zone and the desert zone of the salt marsh wetland of Dunhuang, China. The characteristics and influencing factors of their fine-scale spatial distribution patterns were studied by point pattern analysis, redundancy analysis and simple linear regression. The results show that: (1) the spatial distribution pattern of Phragmites australis changes from aggregation to non-aggregation (random and regular distribution) from the wet zone to the desert zone. (2) The soil water content, pH and salinity all affect Phragmites australis’ spatial distribution intensity. Simple linear regression reveals that the water content in each soil layer, the pH of the deep soil layer and the salinity of the surface and deep soil layers are the main soil conditions of Phragmites australis’ spatial distribution pattern. (3) Phragmites australis’ population characteristics and clonal characteristics also have significant effects on its spatial distribution intensity. Specifically, the intensity of its spatial distribution pattern is significantly positively correlated with its cover, frequency, density, height, biomass, node number, ramet number and stem diameter (p < 0.01), while it is significantly negatively correlated with its rhizome internode length, spacer length and branch angle (p < 0.01). This research clarified the relationship between the spatial distribution pattern of Phragmites australis with soil environmental factors, plant clonal characteristics and population characteristics. The results provide a theoretical basis for understanding the ecological adaptation mechanism of clonal plants and protecting the sustainability of fragile and sensitive inland river wetland ecosystems.