Plasticity of nitrogen allocation in the leaves of the invasive wetland grass, Phalaris arundinacea and co-occurring Carex species determines the photosynthetic sensitivity to nitrogen availability

Comparison of growth traits between abundant and uncommon forms of a non-native vine, Dolichandra unguis-cati (Bignoniaceae) in Australia

“…Higher values of RGR, stem length, number of tubers, and SLA are often indicators of successful colonizers (Gallagher et al 2015;Holaday et al 2015). Higher values of RGR normally correlate with high values of leaf area ratio (LAR) and SLA (Garcia-Serrano et al 2005).…”

“…According to the LES theory, where a species can be found within the spectrum is associated with strategies for resource capture and use. At one extreme are faster growing and highly productive species while on the other end slower growing and more conservative species occupy (Holaday et al 2015).…”

High growth temperatures and high soil nitrogen do not alter differences in CO2 assimilation between invasive Phalaris arundinacea (reed canarygrass) and Carex stricta (tussock sedge)

“…A higher N supply to a plant under moderate heat stress might improve Rubisco content in the leaf and compensate, to some extent, for the increase in Rubisco inactivation. Invasive species might benefit in such a situation, because some invaders are found to allocate a greater proportion of N to carbon assimilation compared to noninvasive species whose N allocation in leaves is more diverse (Feng, 2008a, b; Holaday et al, 2015). Indeed, studies have shown that high N availability in freshwater wetlands increases their susceptibility to invasion by nonnative, rapidly growing species (Green and Galatowitsch, 2001; Zedler and Kercher, 2004; Kercher et al, 2006) that can take advantage of other enhancing factors, such as increased light availability from disturbance (Spyreas et al, 2009; Mack et al, 2000).…”

“…The rapid growth by P . arundinacea appears to be linked to high values of CO 2 assimilation ( A ) across a broad temperature range in the field at a given level of N availability (He et al, 2011) and a strong allocation of N to photosynthesis at a given growth temperature (Holaday et al, 2015), with a strong dependence on high soil N (Iannone and Galatowitsch, 2008). These previous studies have not investigated how increasing temperature in addition to increasing soil N affect the carbon assimilation traits of both species.…”

“…Adding to the studies of He et al (2011) and Holaday et al (2015), we wanted to determine whether increasing temperature had a differential effect on photosynthesis for these two coexisting species. We took advantage of an abnormally warm growing season (NOAA, 2016) at our field site in northern Indiana, USA during 2012 to determine whether the increased temperature affected carbon assimilation seasonally in the absence of major fluctuations in N availability (Waring and Holaday, unpublished data).…”