Sex‐specific plasticity of reproductive allocation in response to water depth in a clonal, dioecious macrophyte

Li, Lei; Barrett, Spencer C. H.; Song, Zhigang; Chen, Jiakuan

doi:10.1002/ajb2.1218

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…Our previous investigation on the effects of water depth change on reproductive allocation in perennial V. spinulosa which produces abundant tubers reported sex-specific plasticity in allocation patterns across a water depth gradient (from 50 to 150 cm) (Li et al, 2019a). Also in the present experiment, males and females of annual V. natans differed in adjustments of their morphology, reproductive traits and photosynthesis with increasing water depth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Males displayed greater percentage of flowering ramets, and produced more spathes and flowers than females, whereas females displayed a greater resource allocation to reproduction (as a percentage of total biomass in reproductive structures). Many studies have found that females expended proportionally more of their resources on reproduction per reproductive bout than their male counterparts (Delph, 1999; Obeso, 2002; Sakai et al, 2006), including those on the clonal macrophytes V. americana (Lovett Doust and Laporte, 1991) and V. spinulosa (Li et al, 2019a,b). In comparison to males, females produce fruits and seeds in addition to flowers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A growing body of work has tested for variation in sexual dimorphism in terrestrial plants under different environmental conditions with mixed results. As far as we are aware, how aquatic conditions influence the plasticity in sexual dimorphism in dioecious macrophytes is still mostly unknown (but see Li et al, 2019a). Studies of variation of sexual dimorphism under different conditions could provide insights into our understanding of the adaptive strategies of dioecious macrophytes to environmental changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plasticity in Sexual Dimorphism Enhances Adaptation of Dioecious Vallisneria natans Plants to Water Depth Change

Zhou

Song

2019

Front. Plant Sci.

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Sexual dimorphism in vegetative and reproductive traits is associated with contrasting strategies of males and females for response to varied environmental conditions, causing sex-specific reproduction success and consequently long-distance dispersal and colonization. Aquatic plants usually exhibit rich phenotypic plasticity and great diversity in reproductive systems, but the influence of aquatic conditions on the plasticity of sexual dimorphism has received less attention. Using a common garden experiment with dioecious submerged plant Vallisneria natans grown at various water depths simulating different light availability, we measured variations in 20 traits for females and 19 traits for males (total = 540 plants from 30 seed families) including morphology, reproductive traits and photosynthesis. We investigated sex-specific plastic responses and variation of sexual dimorphism in response to water depth change. Females displayed much greater leaf length, vegetative biomass and resource allocation to reproduction than males at all depths, whereas spathe number and gamete production per spathe displayed reverse pattern. Besides most traits in each sex (16 in female and 12 in male) showing striking phenotypic plasticity, the degree of sexual dimorphism increased significantly for total biomass and reproductive investment, but decreased for leaf length, spathe number and flowering ramet percentage in low light and deep water. Females varied more than males in leaf length, total biomass, reproductive investment, length and biomass of reproductive organs and rate of photosynthesis in response to decreased underwater light availability, suggesting that female has greater plasticity than male. These findings illustrated considerable plasticity in the degree of sexual dimorphism in a variety of vegetative and reproductive traits across different environments driven by the contrasting reproductive functions of the sexes in relation to pollen and seed dispersal. Females of V. natans responded more plastically than males to low light conditions resulted from water depth variation in either aboveground vegetative growth or reproduction. This study provides novel insight into adaptive strategies of submerged dioecious macrophytes to survive and increase fitness in freshwater habitats.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plasticity in Sexual Dimorphism Enhances Adaptation of Dioecious Vallisneria natans Plants to Water Depth Change

Zhou

Song

2019

Front. Plant Sci.

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“…He attributed this to traits that enhanced matings, albeit at some cost to longevity, increasing fitness in males more than in females. Sex‐specific condition dependence based on water availability has also been shown for the dioecious, clonal, aquatic plant Vallisneria spinulosa (Li et al., ). Females of this species were found to be more sensitive to variation in water depth, and the authors concluded that this indicated a stronger trade‐off between sexual reproduction and clonal growth for females.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Water availability drives population divergence and sex‐specific responses in a dioecious plant

Delph

2019

American J of Botany

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PREMISE:Water availability is an important abiotic factor, resulting in differences between plant species growing in xeric and mesic habitats. Species with populations occurring in both habitat types allow examination of whether water availability has acted as a selective force at the intraspecific level. Investigating responses to water availability with a dioecious species allows determination of whether males and females, which often have different physiologies and life histories, respond differently. METHODS:An experiment varying water availability was performed under an outdoor rain-out shelter using plants from two mesic and two xeric populations of the dioecious plant Silene latifolia. Early growth rate, flowering propensity, flower size, and specific leaf area were measured. At the end of the season, the plants were harvested, aboveground and root biomass were measured, and the total number of flowers and fruit produced were counted. RESULTS:Compared to the two mesic populations, plants from the two xeric populations grew more slowly, were less likely to flower, took longer to flower, had thicker leaves, invested less in aboveground biomass and more in root biomass, produced fewer flowers and fruit, but were more likely to live. Many traits exhibited significant habitat type × treatment interactions. Compared to the xeric populations, males-but not females-from mesic populations had less root biomass and greatly reduced their flower production in response to low water availability. CONCLUSIONS: Mesic and xeric populations responded in ways congruent with water availability being a selective force for among-population divergence, especially for males.

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“…Our results reflect environmental variation between sexes in their allocation to vegetative tissues and reproduction and provide support for differential plasticity contributing to variations in sexual dimorphism in aquatic macrophytes. A growing evidence from studies of sexual dimorphism under varying resource levels supported the differential plasticity hypothesis (Harris and Pannell, 2008; Hesse and Pannell, 2011; Teitel et al, 2016; Li et al, 2019). However, details of how resource currencies are differently reallocated from sources to sinks and how patterns of variation in sexual dimorphism are driven by different resource currencies, remain largely unknown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Light Availability and Patterns of Allocation to Reproductive and Vegetative Biomass in the Sexes of the Dioecious Macrophyte Vallisneria spinulosa

Ding

Lan

et al. 2019

Front. Plant Sci.

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Environmental changes, e.g., eutrophication, in aquatic ecosystems can greatly alter light available to submerged macrophytes. In dioecious plants, given potential for sex-specific differences in resource requirements (i.e., high-carbon for seeds vs. high-nitrogen for pollen), females and males are expected to divergently adjust allocations toward resource acquisition structures when resources are limited during growth. Here, Vallisneria spinulosa was used as a representative dioecious submerged macrophyte to detect sex-specific responses to light limitation and assess whether sexual dimorphism varied with resource availability. Plants were grown under varying levels of light availability in nine outdoor mesocosms for 14 weeks. Late in the reproductive season, allocations to vegetative and reproductive traits for both sexes were determined and relative allocation to reproduction vs. vegetative growth was analyzed. Female and male reproductive plants differed in adjustments of resource allocation in response to light availability. Under low light, females showed a smaller reduction in allocation of resources to vegetative tissues and greater leaf area than males, suggesting female plasticity to increase carbon capture. Under low light, males showed a smaller reduction in reproductive allocation than females (flowers and inflorescences in males vs. fruits in females), suggesting that carbon limitation has greater impacts on sexual reproduction by females than males. Our study provides evidence of differences in reproductive costs and currencies for female vs. male reproduction in aquatic macrophytes, as V. spinulosa responded plastically to reduced light, with sexually dimorphic allocation strategies. Sex-related resource currencies are potentially important drivers for sex-specific variations in allocation patterns, with females safeguarding their vegetative carbon-rich biomass to satisfy future fruit and seed production.

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Sex‐specific plasticity of reproductive allocation in response to water depth in a clonal, dioecious macrophyte

Cited by 21 publications

References 53 publications

Plasticity in Sexual Dimorphism Enhances Adaptation of Dioecious Vallisneria natans Plants to Water Depth Change

Plasticity in Sexual Dimorphism Enhances Adaptation of Dioecious Vallisneria natans Plants to Water Depth Change

Water availability drives population divergence and sex‐specific responses in a dioecious plant

Light Availability and Patterns of Allocation to Reproductive and Vegetative Biomass in the Sexes of the Dioecious Macrophyte Vallisneria spinulosa

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