Clonal diversity and genetic variation of the sedge Carex nigra in an alpine fen depend on soil nutrients.

Christoph Reisch,Stefanie Meier,Maik Bartelheimer,Christoph Schmid

doi:10.7717/peerj.8887

Christoph Reisch, Stefanie Meier + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8887

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Journal: PeerJ	Publication Date: Jun 3, 2020
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Regensburg, University of Münster

Abstract

In this study we analysed the impact of water regime and soil nutrients on the clonal diversity and genetic variation of the sedge Carex nigra in a central alpine fen. For our analysis, we established 16 study plots randomly distributed over the fen. We determined the exact elevation of each plot as an indicator for the water regime and measured the content of phosphorous and potassium in the soil of each plot. Clonal diversity and genetic variation of C. nigra were assessed with nuclear microsatellites using leaf material collected in 20 subplots along a diagonal cross within each study plot. The influence of water regime and soil mineral nutrients on clonal diversity and genetic variation was estimated by Bayesian multiple regression. Our study revealed a clear impact of soil nutrient conditions on clonal diversity and genetic variation of C. nigra, which increased with the concentration of phosphorous and decreased with the concentration of potassium. Key background to these findings seems to be the relative offspring success from generative as compared to clonal propagation. Phosphorous acquisition is essential during seedling establishment. Clonal diversity and genetic variation increase, therefore, at sites with higher phosphorous contents due to more successful recruitment. High levels of clonal diversity and genetic variation at sites of low potassium availability may in contrast be mainly caused by increased plant susceptibility to abiotic stress under conditions of potassium deficiency, which brings about more gaps in C. nigra stands and favors the ingrowth from other clones or recruitment from seeds.

Highlights

Clonal growth is one of the most remarkable characteristics of plants and is widely distributed among alpine (Bliss, 1971; Weppler & Stöcklin, 2005) and wetland species (Sosnová, Van Diggelen & Klimesova, 2010; Sosnová et al, 2011; Van Groenendael et al, 1996)
The level of genetic variation we detected for C. nigra in our study was notably lower than reported previously for other widespread, long-lived and outcrossing plant species (Nybom, 2004), which can clearly be attributed to the effects of clonality and our small scale sampling design with 1 m2 plots
Terrestrial wetlands are often characterized by dominant stands of one or few vegetatively spreading species like Phragmites australis or Carex ssp. (Moor et al, 2017; Sosnová, Van Diggelen & Klimesova, 2010), sometimes with a tendency to monoclonality (Charpentier, Grillas & Thompson, 2000; Honnay & Bossuyt, 2005)

Summary

Introduction

Clonal growth is one of the most remarkable characteristics of plants and is widely distributed among alpine (Bliss, 1971; Weppler & Stöcklin, 2005) and wetland species (Sosnová, Van Diggelen & Klimesova, 2010; Sosnová et al, 2011; Van Groenendael et al, 1996). Thereby, individual persistence increases and the mortality risk of specific genotypes is reduced decreasing the loss of genetic variation (Van Groenendael et al, 1996). Second and maybe even more important, clonal growth allows the exploitation of heterogeneously distributed, limiting resources. Clonal diversity and genetic variation of the sedge Carex nigra in an alpine fen depend on soil nutrients.

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