Clonality as a key but overlooked driver of biotic interactions in plants

Abstract

Highlights  Clonal traits drive not only the individual plant fitness, but also the whole plant community assembly and ecosystem functioning through their involvement in plant biotic interactions with other micro-and macro-organisms.  Clonality influences a wide range of processes in space and over time, and subsequently affects biotic interactions.  Clonal traits are thus not only response traits but also effect traits for plant biotic interactions with other organisms (plants, herbivores, pollinators, and fungi).

From glacial refugia to hydrological microrefugia: Factors and processes driving the persistence of the climate relict tree Zelkova sicula

“…However, the intrinsic growth potential of Z. sicula should have remained unknown unless some trees were grown for a relative long time-span under climatic conditions which are by far more favorable than in the wild (cf. Garfì et al, 2011 pronounced clumped distribution of trees, which is typical of clonal populations especially proliferating by root suckers (Bittebière et al, 2020). Suckering is guessed as the exclusive asexual regenerative strategy in Z. sicula (Garfì et al, 2011) and can be stimulated or even amplified by external disturbance factors involving critical injury to plant body (Klimesǒvá & Martinkǒvá, 2004), such as stem decline observed after severe drought stress (Garfì et al, 2002(Garfì et al, , 2011).…”

Social networking in crop plants: Wired and wireless cross‐plant communications

“…Some plants produce genetically identical but independent plants (clones) through specific organs such as rhizome and stolon (Bittebiere, Benot, & Mony, 2020; Vannier et al, 2019). These clonal plants are two functionally independent plants that share vascular connections and physiological integration.…”

The Intensity of Simulated Grazing Modifies Costs and Benefits of Physiological Integration in a Rhizomatous Clonal Plant

“…Clonal plants possess the capacity to share resources, such as carbohydrates, water and nutrients, among interconnected ramets through physiological integration [1][2][3][4]. Physiological integration facilitates the growth and reproduction of clonal plants by providing the ability to share resources among ramets in heterogeneous environments and enhance their ability to tolerate herbivory damage [5][6][7].…”

“…Physiological integration confers a number of benefits on clonal plants, but involves some costs as well [2,8]. The benefits of physiological integration often overweighed its costs, which is one of the underlying mechanisms of the widespread distribution and dominance of clonal species [9].…”

“…Clonal plants have higher capacity to tolerate herbivory than other species, and numerous experiments have found that physiological integration promotes compensatory growth of clonal plants [2,17,18]. Plants may respond to herbivory by compensatory growth, which can alleviate the potential negative effects of herbivory [19,20].…”