Investigating the community consequences of competition among clonal plants

Gough, Laura; Goldberg, Deborah E.; Hershock, Chad; Pauliukonis, Nijole; Petrů, Martina

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-1345-0_18

Cited by 25 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Clonal mobility of plant species may have important consequences for species coexistence (Gough et al 2001;Svensson et al 2005). Theoretical studies have argued that when space itself is a resource, trade-oVs in the ability of species to compete for resources in a patch and colonise empty patches may enhance coexistence (Amarasekare 2003;Chase 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understory plant diversity is related to higher variability of vegetative mobility of coexisting species

et al. 2008

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Theoretical studies claim that if co-occurring species have very diVerent mobilities this will result in greater small-scale species richness, but empirical evidence is still lacking. We measured horizontal vegetative mobility (VM) of 48 herbaceous understory species and estimated small-scale species richness in early and late successional boreonemoral herb-rich coniferous forests in central Estonia. VM of erosulate growth forms was signiWcantly higher than that of hemi-rosette and rosette growth forms. Erosulate species exhibited higher mobility in young stands, but their relative and total cover was considerably higher in old stands. Local plant richness (in 1 £ 1 m plots) correlated positively with the variability of VM of species in a plotlarger diVerences in VM resulted in a higher number of coexisting species. Our results thus suggest that species diVerences in VM can contribute to small-scale coexistence by providing diVerent ways to colonise empty space.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understory plant diversity is related to higher variability of vegetative mobility of coexisting species

et al. 2008

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“…Clumping of ramets has been shown to reduce competitive ability under certain environmental conditions (Lenssen et al 2005), but this likely depends on the growth form of the competitors (Cheplick 1997) and thus is neighborhood dependent. Manipulative garden or pot experiments that have explicitly focused on competition between clonal growth forms are rarely repeated in the Weld (Callaghan et al 1992;Gough et al 2002), thus extrapolating to natural conditions remains diYcult.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many systems, species with a clonal growth form (with spreading architecture) appear to respond most positively to nutrient addition (Tilman 1987;Knops and Reinhart 2000;Shaver et al 2001;Baer et al 2004;Reynolds et al 2007;Honsová et al 2007;Eilts et al 2011). While sometimes including potentially correlated traits, e.g., lateral spread , community-level studies rarely focus on clonal growth form directly (but see Sammul et al 2003;Honsová et al 2007;Eilts et al 2011), despite evidence that clonal traits likely aVect interactions between individual plants and thus community structure (Herben and Hara 1997;Gough et al 2002;Zobel et al 2010). Understanding the role of clonality in community responses to nutrient addition is important given that clonal species often respond signiWcantly to this perturbation.…”

Section: Electronic Supplementary Materialsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…We expect that clonal growth form should aVect competitive ability, because clonality creates the potential for local colonization via vegetative growth and can promote resource sharing among ramets that may beneWt the entire plant (Stuefer et al 1994;Herben and Hara 1997;Gough et al 2002;Golubski et al 2008). In this analysis, we focus on two simpliWed categories of clonal growth form distinguished by the distance between ramets of the same individual: clumpers with very short spacers (phalanx; sensu Lovett Doust 1981) and runners with longer spacers (guerilla).…”

Section: Electronic Supplementary Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Incorporating clonal growth form clarifies the role of plant height in response to nitrogen addition

et al. 2012

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Nutrient addition to grasslands consistently causes species richness declines and productivity increases. Competition, particularly for light, is often assumed to produce this result. Using a long-term dataset from North American herbaceous plant communities, we tested whether height and clonal growth form together predict responses to fertilization because neither trait alone predicted species loss in a previous analysis. Species with a tall-runner growth form commonly increased in relative abundance in response to added nitrogen, while short species and those with a tall-clumped clonal growth form often decreased. The ability to increase in size via vegetative spread across space, while simultaneously occupying the canopy, conferred competitive advantage, although typically only the abundance of a single species within each height-clonal growth form significantly responded to fertilization in each experiment. Classifying species on the basis of two traits (height and clonal growth form) increases our ability to predict species responses to fertilization compared to either trait alone in predominantly herbaceous plant communities. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00442-012-2264-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…Old stems may die and new ones may grow from the ground to replace them. New stems too deeply shaded to produce much photosynthetic energy themselves may receive an energy subsidy from taller stems nearby via translocation through the root system (Gough et al 2002). It is through such subsidized growth of new stems that our hypothetical clones are able to maintain a fixed vertical leaf distribution through all time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant population growth and competition in a light gradient: A mathematical model of canopy partitioning

Vance¹,

Nevai²

2007

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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Can a difference in the heights at which plants place their leaves, a pattern we call canopy partitioning, make it possible for two competing plant species to coexist? To find out, we examine a model of clonal plants living in a nonseasonal environment that relates the dynamical behavior and competitive abilities of plant populations to the structural and functional features of the plants that form them. This examination emphasizes whole plant performance in the vertical light gradient caused by selfshading. This first of three related papers formulates a prototype single species CANOPY STRUCTURE MODEL from biological first principles and shows how all plant properties work together to determine population persistence and equilibrium abundance. Population persistence is favored, and equilibrium abundance is increased, by high irradiance, high maximum photosynthesis rate, rapid saturation of the photosynthetic response to increased irradiance, low tissue respiration rate, small amounts of stem and root tissue necessary to support the needs of leaves, and low density of leaf, stem, and root tissue. In particular, equilibrium abundance decreases as mean leaf height increases because of the increased cost of manufacturing and maintaining stem tissue. All conclusions arise from this formulation by straightforward analysis. The argument concludes by stating this formulation's straightforward extension, called a CANOPY PARTITIONING MODEL, to two competing species.

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Investigating the community consequences of competition among clonal plants

Cited by 25 publications

References 34 publications

Understory plant diversity is related to higher variability of vegetative mobility of coexisting species

Understory plant diversity is related to higher variability of vegetative mobility of coexisting species

Incorporating clonal growth form clarifies the role of plant height in response to nitrogen addition

Plant population growth and competition in a light gradient: A mathematical model of canopy partitioning

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