Effects of Moisture Stress on the Growth and Reproduction of Three Annual Species from an Arid Region of Western Australia

Mott, J. J.; McComb, A.J.

doi:10.2307/2258604

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…But only under limited water supply did onset of reproduction have a direct and total negative selection effect on fitness, favouring early onset of reproduction. Earlier we reported (Volis et al, 2002b) that water stress significantly delayed onset of reproduction, a pattern found for other annuals from arid environments (Mott & McComb, 1975;Fox, 1990;van Rooyen et al, 1991;Steyn et al, 1996). The results of our selection analysis suggest that, although water stress causes a delay of reproduction in comparison with an optimal environment because of physiological constraints that limited water supply imposes on plant development, plants that initiate reproduction earlier are favoured.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Phenotypic selection and regulation of reproduction in different environments in wild barley

Volis

Verhoeven

Mendlinger

et al. 2004

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

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Plasticity of the phenotypic architecture of wild barley, Hordeum spontaneum, was studied in response to water and nutrient stress. Direct and indirect selection on several vegetative and reproductive traits was estimated and path analysis used to reveal how regulating pathways via maternal investment differed between environments. Vegetative traits displayed differential regulating effect on fitness across experimental environments: (1) increase in size was selected for under optimal conditions and under water stress, but not under nutrient stress; (2) allocation to root biomass was selected for under optimal conditions, but it had no effect under nutrient stress and was strongly selected against when water was limiting; (3) delayed onset of reproduction was selected under nutrient limitation whereas earlier onset was selected under water stress. The regulating effect of reproductive traits on final reproductive output also differed across treatments, operating either at the ‘early’ stage of plant development through varying the number of initiated spikelets per spike (no stress and water stress treatment) or at the ‘late’ developmental stage adjusting the fertile spikelet weight (no stress and nutrient stress treatment). Reproductive output was regulated via seed abortion under no stress and water stress treatments. Although the underlying mechanism of the regulation through abortion has yet to be discovered, the specific mechanism of abortion under water stress appears to be different from that under optimal conditions. Our results demonstrate that not only is the character architecture in wild barley plastic and sensitive to changing availability of water and nutrients, but the regulating mechanism of maternal investment is also environmentally sensitive.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Phenotypic selection and regulation of reproduction in different environments in wild barley

Volis

Verhoeven

Mendlinger

et al. 2004

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

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“…In contrast to the widely held view that the onset of reproduction in desert, and sometimes in mesic, annuals is stimulated by drought (Went, 1948(Went, , 1949Rathcke & Lacey, 1985;Lacey, 1986), our results suggest the opposite. Water stress significantly delayed onset of reproduction, a pattern found for other annuals from arid environments (Mott & McComb, 1975;Fox, 1990;van Rooyen et al, 1991;Steyn et al, 1996). There was no difference in delaying response among plants of different origin, suggesting a similar mechanism for switch from vegetative to reproductive stage and similar phenotypic plasticity for this transition for the four ecotypes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Differentiation in populations of Hordeum spontaneum Koch along a gradient of environmental productivity and predictability: plasticity in response to water and nutrient stress

2002

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Plants from four populations of Hordeum spontaneum originating in distinct environments of Israel were compared for stress induced phenotypic plasticity. The environments ranged along a gradient of increasing rainfall amount and predictability from low (desert) to moderate (semisteppe batha) to high (Mediterranean grassland and mountain, the latter also experiencing frost stress). The plants were exposed to a set of four treatments: no stress (optimum water and nutrients), water, nutrient and both water and nutrient stress. Plants from the four populations (or ecotypes) exhibited different patterns of plasticity in response to the different stresses (water and nutrients) and in different trait categories (reproductive, fitness and resource allocation). The importance of plasticity in response to water stress appears to decrease, and to nutrient stress appears to increase along the increasing rainfall gradient. The mountain ecotype, growing in an area with high potential productivity (amount of rainfall) but experiencing periodic frosts, was the most plastic among ecotypes in resource allocation under both water and nutrient stress, but exhibited low plasticity in other trait categories. In contrast, the desert ecotype had low plasticity in resource allocation under water stress and the lowest plasticity among the four ecotypes in all trait categories in response to nutrient stress. The ecotype originating in Mediterranean grassland, a predictable and most favourable environment, was highly plastic in fitness and allocation traits in response to low nutrient levels which is likely to occur due to competition in productive environment. We discuss the observed differences in ecotype plasticity as part of their environmentally induced adaptive ‘strategies’. We found no support for the hypothesis that plants originating in environments with greater variation and unpredictability are more plastic. © 2002 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 2002, 75, 301–312.

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“…Etherington (1967) found that even very slight water deficits reduced photosynthesis in Alopecurus pratensis considerably. That the adverse effect of water stress on growth is variable for different species and depends on their relative drought tolerance has been shown by various authors (Mott andMcComb 1975, Gerakis et al 1975). The relative decrease in shoot and root dry weights was different in different species.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Lolium showed the least reduction in total biomass. Several authors have reported a reduction in the dry matter yield of grasses caused by water stress (Mott andMcComb 1975, Gerakis et al 1975). This decrease is evidently due to a decline in net Kozlowski (1964Kozlowski ( , 1968), Slatyer (1967), Crafts (1968), and Kramer (1969) have also reported that a decrease in turgor due to water stress influences cell expansion, which in turn causes reduction in photosynthesis.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Biomass and Water Status of Four Range Grasses Grown under Two Soil Water Conditions

Pande¹,

Singh²

1981

Journal of Range Management

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Effects of Moisture Stress on the Growth and Reproduction of Three Annual Species from an Arid Region of Western Australia

Cited by 19 publications

References 11 publications

Phenotypic selection and regulation of reproduction in different environments in wild barley

Phenotypic selection and regulation of reproduction in different environments in wild barley

Differentiation in populations of Hordeum spontaneum Koch along a gradient of environmental productivity and predictability: plasticity in response to water and nutrient stress

Comparative Biomass and Water Status of Four Range Grasses Grown under Two Soil Water Conditions

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