To grow or survive: Which are the strategies of a perennial grass to face severe seasonal stress?

Abstract

More severe seasonal stresses resulting from climate change affect the survival of perennial plant species. The growth–survival trade‐off exemplified in dormant species is a key issue to understand adaptation. As the validity of this trade‐off has yet to be tested in non‐dormant species, it was assessed by exploring the intraspecific variability of strategies to face drought and frost within perennial ryegrass. Three common gardens compared 385 European perennial ryegrass populations along a latitudinal environmental gradient over 3‐years. Persistence, productivity and physiological traits were recorded under contrasting seasonal environments. Decoupling plant responses, that is, growth under favourable summers/winters and plant survival under harsh summers/winters, showed a general trade‐off between growth potential and dehydration survival. Three groups of perennial ryegrass populations were identified according to their contrasting strategies: (a) year‐round productive but stress sensitive populations from wet areas; (b) drought‐tolerant populations with low summer growth potential from drought‐prone areas and (c) frost‐tolerant populations with low winter growth potential from frost‐prone areas. Overall, the populations surviving drought best were more resource conservative, whereas populations of the other groups were more resource acquisitive. However, such overall functional patterns were less meaningful than seasonal variations of resource acquisition potentials. The predicted potential biogeographical distribution of these groups suggests shifts of areas of suitability under climate change over the next decades in Europe. Dehydration escape and dehydration tolerance through reduction of growth potential in summer may become the strategies best adapted to an increasingly large area of Europe. The large intraspecific variability of phenological adaptations within perennial ryegrass reveals that the seasonal modulation of growth potential is crucial to plant adaptation under severe chronic abiotic stresses. The global plant economics spectrum cannot account for contrasting seasonal trade‐offs, which points out the importance of integrating phenological traits as key components of plant strategies. The identification of the trade‐off between growth potential and frost or drought stress survival in this non‐dormant species provides key knowledge to understand the future regional distribution of this major species for grassland ecosystem services. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Rhizospheric Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Protects Capsicum annuum cv. Geumsugangsan From Multiple Abiotic Stresses via Multifarious Plant Growth-Promoting Attributes

“…These processes can lead to the spread of, for example, heavy metals, which can create severe ecological problems even at low levels ( Wuana and Okieimen, 2011 ). There are other abiotic stresses that are more location specific, including frost ( Keep et al, 2021 ; Simioniuc et al, 2021 ), ultraviolet radiation ( Böttner et al, 2021 ; Navarro et al, 2021 ), and floods ( Khan et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2021 ).…”

Effect of Grazing Treatments on Phenotypic and Reproductive Plasticity of Kobresia humilis in Alpine Meadows of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

“…The development of shoots into nutritional branches may be related to photosynthetic rate, growth hormone levels, and animal saliva (Zhang et al, 2009). The adaptive strategies of plants to grazing can be reflected not only in the number of resources allocated, but also in the time of resource allocation (Liu et al, 2019;Keep et al, 2021). For perennial plants, a complex trade-off between current reproduction and future growth exists (Quesnel et al, 2018).…”

Water Use Characteristics of the Common Tree Species in Rock-dominated and Thin-soil Environments in Subtropical Monsoon Climate Region

“…In our study, plants absorbed shallow layers soil water by increasing the diurnal ranges of water potential for relieving the energy consumption to supply leaf rapid growth in the early wet season with 20-day drought. The tree species seek for the balance of water uptake and growth through the relatively high water use efficiency (Keep et al, 2021). However, if the drought is prolonged, soil moisture declines and fails to supply water for plants.…”