Effect of rosette size, clonality and spatial distribution on the reproduction of Vriesea carinata (Bromeliaceae) in the Atlantic Forest of Paraná, southern Brazil

Marcelo Aparecido De Souza Silva,Isabela Galarda Varassin

doi:10.1590/0102-33062016abb0144

Marcelo Aparecido De Souza Silva, Isabela Galarda Varassin

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-33062016abb0144

Copy DOI

Abstract

Plant size and clonality are important traits for explaining the reproductive effort of clonal plants. Larger plants can invest more resources into reproduction, and clonality is known to increase reproductive effort. Moreover, reproductive effort is influenced by environmental variation, and so the spatial distribution of plants may affect plant reproductive effort. We investigated the effect of plant size, clonality and spatial distribution on the reproductive effort of Vriesea carinata in the Atlantic Forest in the state of Parana, Brazil. We marked twenty individual plants and measured their rosette size, biomass and number, as well as rosette reproductive effort (number of flowers, fruits and seeds). We also evaluated the relationship between reproductive effort and spatial distribution of plants. Reproductive effort did not correlate with size, whereas greater clonal growth contributed to a lower reproductive effort because rosettes within clones that had more rosettes set fewer flowers. We found that plants growing closer to each other exhibited similar reproductive efforts independently of vegetative traits, because reproductive traits were spatially autocorrelated. In Vriesea carinata, the main drivers of reproductive effort are clonality, which decreases flower production, and spatial factors, which result in greater similarity in reproductive efforts among more proximate plants.

Highlights

Plant size and biomass are correlated with the allocation of resources for reproduction (Aarssen & Taylor 1992), and are important for plant fitness (Bazzaz 1997)
We investigated the effect of plant size, clonality and spatial distribution on the reproductive effort of Vriesea carinata in the Atlantic Forest in the state of Paraná, Brazil
Our study model was Vriesea carinata Wawra, which occurs in the Atlantic Forest of Paraná in southern Brazil

Summary

Introduction

Plant size and biomass are correlated with the allocation of resources for reproduction (Aarssen & Taylor 1992), and are important for plant fitness (Bazzaz 1997). Resource allocation for reproduction is defined as the proportion of resources, such as energy or biomass, invested by a plant in vegetative structures versus those invested in reproductive structures, such as flowers, fruits, seeds, floral stems and bracts (Abrahamson & Caswell 1982; Bazzaz et al 1987). Fruits, and seeds are obvious reproductive parts of plants, but other structures, such as floral stems and bracts, may be involved in resource allocation (Bazzaz 1997). In turn, may increase flower production (Demetrio et al 2014)

Methods

Results

Conclusion