Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China.
J Integr Plant Biol. 2008 Dec;50(12):1570-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-7909.2008.00699.x.
How plant competition varies across environmental gradients has been a long debate among ecologists. We conducted a growth chamber experiment to determine the intensity and importance of competition for plants grown in changed environmental conditions. Festuca rubra and Trifolium pratense were grown in monoculture and in two- and/or three-species mixtures under three environmental treatments. The measured competitive variations in terms of growth (height and biomass) were species-dependent. Competition intensity for Festuca increased with decreased productivity, whilst competition importance displayed a humpback response. However, significant response was detected in neither competition intensity nor importance for Trifolium. Intensity and importance of competition followed different response patterns, suggesting that they may not be correlated along an environmental gradient. The biological and physiological variables of plants play an important role to determine the interspecific competition associated with competition intensity and importance. However, the competitive feature can be modified by multiple environmental changes which may increase or hinder how competitive a plant is.
植物在环境梯度上的竞争方式一直是生态学家争论的焦点。我们进行了一项生长室实验，以确定在环境条件改变的情况下，植物的竞争强度和重要性。红羊茅和三叶草分别在单种和两种或三种混合种植条件下，在三种环境处理下生长。从生长（高度和生物量）方面衡量的竞争变化具有物种依赖性。红羊茅的竞争强度随着生产力的降低而增加，而竞争重要性则呈驼峰响应。然而，三叶草的竞争强度和重要性都没有显著反应。竞争强度和重要性遵循不同的响应模式，表明它们在环境梯度上可能不相关。植物的生物和生理变量在决定与竞争强度和重要性相关的种间竞争方面起着重要作用。然而，竞争特征可以通过多种环境变化来改变，这可能会增加或阻碍植物的竞争力。
