On the Relationship Between Clonal Traits and Small-Scale Spatial Patterns of Three Dominant Grasses and its Consequences on Community Diversity

Pottier, Julien; Évette, André

doi:10.1007/s12224-009-9053-x

Cited by 24 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The relationships between environmental factors, clonal traits and spatial aggregation, which we have highlighted in this study, support the idea of a continuum between phalanx and guerrilla growth forms that can operate at the intraspecific level. Here, we also emphasize the importance of the number of clumping tillers as an additional and independent trait from spacer length (Pottier & Evette 2010). Indeed, this trait was statistically independent from spacer length in regard to the standardized PCA and different developmental origin (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Carex curvula in alpine ecosystems Steinger et al 1996); on intermediate scales in plant communities (Lovett Doust 1981; Pottier et al 2007); and on much finer scales of a few centimetres (e.g. Law et al 1997; Pottier & Evette 2010). Here, we showed that even on a very narrow range of scales (from 1 cm × 1 cm to 7.5 cm × 7.5 cm), intravaginal tillering and extravaginal tillering had differential consequences for tiller clumping when the grain size of observations changed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to measure the spatial pattern of tillers, we built lattices of tiller spatial distribution for each patch at four different scales of resolution following the methods of Pottier & Evette 2010. In doing so, we obtained four grids of tiller counts per quadrat: (1) 5625 cells of 1 cm × 1 cm; (2) 900 cells of 2.5 cm × 2.5 cm; (3) 225 cells of 5 cm × 5 cm; and (4) 100 cells of 7.5 cm × 7.5 cm.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial pattern and process at the plant neighbourhood scale: insights from communities dominated by the clonal grass Elymus repens (L.) Gould

Pottier

Évette²

2011

Journal of Vegetation Science

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Question: How do clonal traits of a locally dominant grass (Elymus repens (L.) Gould.) respond to soil heterogeneity and shape spatial patterns of its tillers? How do tiller spatial patterns constrain seedling recruitment within the community? Locations: Artificial banks of the River Rhône, France. Material and Methods: We examined 45 vegetation patches dominated by Elymus repens. During a first phase we tested relationships between soil variables and three clonal traits (spacer length, number of clumping tillers and branching rate), and between the same clonal traits and spatial patterns (i.e. density and degree of spatial aggregation) of tillers at a very fine scale. During a second phase, we performed a sowing experiment to investigate effects of density and spatial patterns of E. repens on recruitment of eight species selected from the regional species pool. Results: Clonal traits had clear effects – especially spacer length – on densification and aggregation of E. repens tillers and, at the same time, a clear response of these same clonal traits as soil granulometry changed. The density and degree of aggregation of E. repens tillers was positively correlated to total seedling cover and diversity at the finest spatial scales. Conclusions: Spatial patterning of a dominant perennial grass responds to soil heterogeneity through modifications of its clonal morphology as a trade‐off between phalanx and guerrilla forms. In turn, spatial patterns have strong effects on abundance and diversity of seedlings. Spatial patterns of tillers most probably led to formation of endogenous gaps in which the recruitment of new plant individuals was enhanced. Interestingly, we also observed more idiosyncratic effects of tiller spatial patterns on seedling cover and diversity when focusing on different growth forms of the sown species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial pattern and process at the plant neighbourhood scale: insights from communities dominated by the clonal grass Elymus repens (L.) Gould

Pottier

Évette²

2011

Journal of Vegetation Science

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“…to date, including plastic response to changeable light conditions (Mojzes et al, 2003), high tiller density and branching frequency (Pottier and Evette, 2010), and its capacity for early-season clonal growth and a strategy of clonal integration (de Kroon and Bobbink, 1997;de Kroon and Knops, 1990). Its increasing abundance and biomass is associated with elevated nitrogen and phosphorus input to the soil (Willems and van Nieuwstadt, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic diversity of the expansive grass Brachypodium pinnatum in a changing landscape: Effect of habitat age

Bąba

Kurowska

Kompała‐Bąba

et al. 2012

Flora - Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants

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“…Among other mechanisms underlying the success of clonal plants are fitness gains enhanced through sex allocation (Dorken and van Drunen 2010), shoot/root correlations (Sachs 2008), and balance and triggering between sexual and asexual reproduction (Zhang and Zhang 2007;Honnary and Jacquemyn 2010;Schulze et al 2012). Although there are some recent studies investigating the community effects of clonality (Pottier and Evette 2010;Cushman and Gaffiney 2010;Yu et al 2010;Canullo et al 2011;Herben and Wildova´2012), the impact of clonality on community structure and dynamics still needs to be well documented in order to understand the roles and mechanisms of clonal plants in maintaining various ecosystems on Earth. While clonality has been the focus of much research, and many studies have examined the effects of clonality, e.g., clonal integration on the growth of individual clonal plants, relatively few studies have tested the community level effects of clonality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in diversity and importance of clonal plants during sand dune succession in northeastern China

Zhang

2014

Ecological Research

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Many major biomes throughout the world are dominated by plants with clonal growth forms. While many recent studies have examined the effects of clonality on the growth of individual plants, relatively few studies have tested the community level effects of clonality as a function of environmental characteristics. By investigating six sand dune sites that have undergone different numbers of years of natural restoration constituting a succession sere, we quantified if the abundance and importance of clonal plants was related to successional age in the stressful environment of a semi‐arid sand dune region in northeastern China. We expected that clonal plants would dominate at every stage of the succession sere. We also predicted that species diversity would decrease in later stages of the succession sere due to the extremely high proportion of clonal plants in the community. Our results showed that, through 45 years of succession, the total plant species richness and Shannon–Wiener diversity index continually increased. While the species number of clonal plants was consistently low during the succession, the importance of clonal plants increased gradually from none at 3 years to 49 % of the total, approximately equal to that of aclonal plants, at the 45‐year site. Clonal plants with phalanx strategies were more important than guerillas at all ages in sand dune succession. At the beginning and early stages of sand dune succession, aclonal plants were more important than clonal plants, perhaps due to greater seed propagation. The distribution or arrangement of aclonal and clonal plants in the whole process of sand dune complemented each other. The results presented give new perceptions on the function of biodiversity in maintaining ecosystems.

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On the Relationship Between Clonal Traits and Small-Scale Spatial Patterns of Three Dominant Grasses and its Consequences on Community Diversity

Cited by 24 publications

References 52 publications

Spatial pattern and process at the plant neighbourhood scale: insights from communities dominated by the clonal grass Elymus repens (L.) Gould

Spatial pattern and process at the plant neighbourhood scale: insights from communities dominated by the clonal grass Elymus repens (L.) Gould

Genetic diversity of the expansive grass Brachypodium pinnatum in a changing landscape: Effect of habitat age

Changes in diversity and importance of clonal plants during sand dune succession in northeastern China

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