Abstract
The belowground bud bank plays an important role in plant communities succession and maintenance. In order to understand the response of the bud bank to the sod layer moisture, we investigated the bud bank distribution, size, and composition of six different water gradient alpine meadows through excavating in the Zoige Plateau. The results showed: (1) The alpine meadow plant belowground buds were mainly distributed in the 0–10 cm sod layer, accounting for 74.2%–100% of the total. The total bud density of the swamp wetland and degraded meadow was the highest (16567.9 bud/m3) and the lowest (4839.5 bud/m3). (2) A decrease of the moisture plant diversity showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing. Among six alpine meadows the swamp meadow plant diversity was the highest, and species richness, Simpson, Shannon–Wiener, and Pielou were 10.333, 0.871, 0.944, and 0.931, respectively. (3) The moisture was significantly positively correlated with the total belowground buds and short rhizome bud density. There were significant positive correlations with sod layer moisture and tiller bulb bud density. This study indicates that the moisture affected bud bank distribution and composition in the plant community, and the results provide important information for predicting plant community succession in the alpine meadow with future changes in precipitation patterns.
Highlights
Plant community maintenance and regeneration is realized by the continuous renewal of plants [1]
This study indicates that the moisture affected bud bank distribution and composition in the plant community, and the results provide important information for predicting plant community succession in the alpine meadow with future changes in precipitation patterns
In 0–30 cm alpine sod layers the total bud density decreases with the decrease of moisture (Figure 3)
Summary
Plant community maintenance and regeneration is realized by the continuous renewal of plants [1]. In addition to seed propagation, plants can conduct asexual propagation (population reproduction and renewal rely on belowground buds) [2,3]. Belowground plant bud banks play an important role in population regeneration and maintenance [5]. Asexual reproduction has become the main reproduction method in many grassland ecosystems, especially in the perennial grassland where the role of a bud bank is even greater than that of the seed bank [8,9]. 99% of the aboveground plant stems in North American grasslands were formed from the bud bank [10]; 84% of the alpine grassland area in the Alps is occupied by clonal plants [11]
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