Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Environment and Resource Utilization, Ministry of Education, School of Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China.
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2022 Jan 31;17(1):e0263290. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263290. eCollection 2022.
Soil spatial heterogeneity involves nutrients being patchily distributed at a range of scales and is prevalent in natural habitats. However, little is known about the effect of soil spatial configurations at the small scale on plant foraging behavior and plant growth under different resource amounts. Here, we experimentally investigated how a stoloniferous species, Trifolium repens, responded to varied resource amounts and spatial configuration combinations. Plant foraging behavior (i.e., the orientation of the primary stolon, mean length of the primary stolon, foraging precision, and foraging scale) and plant growth (i.e., total biomass, root biomass, shoot biomass, and root/shoot) were compared among differently designed configurations of soil resources in different amounts. The relationships of foraging behavior and plant biomass were analyzed. The results showed that the effect of the spatial configuration of soil resources on Trifolium repens depended on the resource amount. Specifically, when the total resource amount was low, fragmented soil patches promoted root foraging and increased Trifolium repens plant biomass; however, when the total resource amount was high, the soil spatial configuration did not affect foraging behavior or plant growth. Our results also showed that plant growth was facilitated by root foraging scale to adapt to low resource amounts. We conclude that the spatial configuration of soil resources at small scales affects whole plant growth, which is mediated by a distinct foraging strategy. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how the growth strategy of clonal plants responds to heterogeneous environments caused by different resource amounts and its spatial configurations.
土壤空间异质性涉及养分在一系列尺度上呈斑块状分布，在自然生境中普遍存在。然而，对于小尺度上土壤空间构型对不同资源数量下植物觅食行为和植物生长的影响知之甚少。在这里，我们通过实验研究了匍匐茎物种三叶草（Trifolium repens）如何应对不同资源数量和空间构型组合。在不同数量的土壤资源不同设计构型中比较了植物觅食行为（即主匍匐茎的方向、主匍匐茎的平均长度、觅食精度和觅食范围）和植物生长（即总生物量、根生物量、茎生物量和根/茎比）。分析了觅食行为和植物生物量之间的关系。结果表明，土壤资源空间构型对三叶草的影响取决于资源量。具体而言，当总资源量较低时，碎片化的土壤斑块促进根觅食并增加三叶草植物生物量；然而，当总资源量较高时，土壤空间构型不会影响觅食行为或植物生长。我们的研究结果还表明，植物生长通过根觅食范围促进适应低资源量。我们得出结论，小尺度上土壤资源的空间配置会影响整个植物的生长，这是由独特的觅食策略介导的。这些发现有助于更好地理解克隆植物的生长策略如何响应不同资源数量及其空间构型引起的异质环境。
