Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management on Tropical Crops, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Environment and Plant Protection Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, China.
Plant Biol (Stuttg). 2019 Nov;21(6):1090-1096. doi: 10.1111/plb.13034. Epub 2019 Aug 16.
One benefit of clonal integration is that resource translocation between connected ramets enhances the growth of the ramets grown under stressful conditions, but whether such resource translocation reduces the performance of the ramets grown under favourable conditions has not produced consistent results. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that resource translocation to recipient ramets may reduce the performance of donor ramets when resources are limiting but not when resources are abundant. We grew Mikania micrantha stolon fragments (each consisting of two ramets, either connected or not connected) under spatially heterogeneous competition conditions such that the developmentally younger, distal ramets were grown in competition with a plant community and the developmentally older, proximal ramets were grown without competition. For half of the stolon fragments, slow-release fertiliser pellets were applied to both the distal and proximal ramets. Under both the low and increased soil nutrient conditions, the biomass, leaf number and stolon length of the distal ramets were higher, and those of the proximal ramets were lower when the stolon internode was intact than when it was severed. For the whole clone, the biomass, leaf number and stolon length did not differ between the two connection treatments. Connection did not change the biomass of the plant communities competing with distal ramets of M. micrantha. Although clonal integration may promote the invasion of M. micrantha into plant communities, resource translocation to recipient ramets of M. micrantha will induce a cost to the donor ramets, even when resources are relatively abundant.
克隆整合的一个好处是，连接的分株之间的资源转移可以增强在胁迫条件下生长的分株的生长，但这种资源转移是否会降低在有利条件下生长的分株的表现尚未产生一致的结果。在这项研究中，我们检验了这样一个假设，即当资源有限时，资源转移到受体分株可能会降低供体分株的表现，但当资源丰富时，这种情况不会发生。我们在空间异质竞争条件下生长薇甘菊匍匐茎片段（每个片段由两个分株组成，连接或不连接），使得发育较晚、较远的分株与植物群落竞争，而发育较早、较近的分株则在没有竞争的情况下生长。对于一半的匍匐茎片段，缓慢释放的肥料球分别施用于远端和近端分株。在低土壤养分和增加土壤养分条件下，当匍匐茎节间完整时，远端分株的生物量、叶片数和匍匐茎长度较高，而近端分株的生物量、叶片数和匍匐茎长度较低。对于整个克隆体，两个连接处理之间的生物量、叶片数和匍匐茎长度没有差异。连接并没有改变与薇甘菊远端分株竞争的植物群落的生物量。尽管克隆整合可能促进薇甘菊入侵植物群落，但资源转移到薇甘菊的受体分株会给供体分株带来成本，即使资源相对丰富。
