Trade-offs among growth, clonal, and sexual reproduction in an invasive plant Spartina alterniflora responding to inundation and clonal integration

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to study the trade-offs among vegetative growth, clonal, and sexual reproduction in an aquatic invasive weed Spartina alterniflora that experienced different inundation depths and clonal integration. Here, the rhizome connections between mother and daughter ramets were either severed or left intact. Subsequently, these clones were flooded with water levels of 0, 9, and 18 cm above the soil surface. Severing rhizomes decreased growth and clonal reproduction of daughter ramets, and increased those of mother ramets grown in shallow and deep water. The daughter ramets disconnected from mother ramets did not flower, while sexual reproduction of mother ramets was not affected by severing. Clonal integration only benefited the total rhizome length, rhizome biomass, and number of rhizomes of the whole clones in non-inundation conditions. Furthermore, growth and clonal reproduction of mother, daughter ramets, and the whole clone decreased with inundation depth, whereas sexual reproduction of mother ramets and the whole clones increased. We concluded that the trade-offs among growth, clonal, and sexual reproduction of S. alterniflora would be affected by inundation depth, but not by clonal integration.

Effects of salinity and clonal integration on growth and sexual reproduction of the invasive grass Spartina alterniflora

“…Similar to previous studies in which the same species was exposed to flooding (Xiao et al, 2010(Xiao et al, , 2011, under salt stress clonal integration enhanced the survival, growth and sexual reproduction of S. alterniflora daughter ramets and reduced the performance of their mother ramets (Figs. 1-3).…”

“…Lin and Lin (1992) and Gardner and Mangel (1999). A negative relationship between growth and sexual reproduction associated with increasing intensity of flooding was found in S. alterniflora (Xiao et al, 2011). Ismail and Noor (1996) speculated that the reduced vegetative growth would be one of the possible explanations for the switch towards sexual reproductive development.…”

The influence of habitat conditions on the performance of two invasive, annuals — Impatiens glandulifera and Bidens frondosa

“…So far, most attention has been devoted to the observations of invasive clonal plants. The main trends of research focused on the analysis of population dynamics and structure (Aule & Brandl 1997), the influence of genet integration on the effectiveness of photosynthesis and biomass allocation (Wang et al 2008), the trade-off between growth and reproduction (Brown & Eckert 2005;Lambrecht-McDowell & Radosevich 2005;Xiao et al 2011), the effectiveness of 450 K. Kostrakiewicz-Giera lt & M. Zając asexeual and sexual propagation in different conditions (Dietz et al 2002;Riis et al 2010) and determination of the genetic variability level (Li et al 2006). Simultaneously it should be pointed out, that perennial nonclonal species have been examined to a lesser degree (e.g., Dietz & Ullmann 1998;van Kleunen & Johnson 2005;Pergl et.…”

The effects of resource availability on sprouting: a key trait influencing the population dynamics of a tree species

“…Hoffman et al (2012) states that sprouting plants are more common in low resource sites. Resource allocation may vary among individuals of the same species under different environmental conditions (Xiao et al 2011). Variation in environmental conditions may also unevenly affect fecundity, survival or growth at different ontogenetic stages (Caswell 2001;Soliveres et al 2010;Dahlgren and Ehrlén 2009).…”