Effects of Simulated Herbivory on the Vegetative Reproduction and Compensatory Growth of Hordeum brevisubulatum at Different Ontogenic Stages.

Jihong Yuan,Ping Wang,Yunfei Yang

doi:10.3390/ijerph16091663

Jihong Yuan, Ping Wang + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091663

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Abstract

The response of plant vegetative reproduction and compensatory growth to herbivory has been widely discussed in biological and ecological research. Most previous research has supported the idea that both vegetative reproduction and compensatory growth are affected by their ontogenic stage. However, in many studies, the effects of foraging at different ontogenic stages was often confounded with the effects of foraging at different phenological periods for perennials. Our experiment was conducted in a natural meadow with a perennial grass, Hordeum brevisubulatum, and four ontogenic stages were chosen as our experimental objects. Three different clipping intensities during three phenological periods were implemented to explore the effects of simulating animal foraging on vegetative reproduction and compensatory plant growth. The results indicated that there were significant effects of ontogenic stage, phenological period, and clipping intensity on vegetative reproduction and compensatory growth. Moderate clipping intensities significantly increased the number of vegetative tillers, the total number of juvenile tillers and buds, and the aboveground biomass at early phenological periods for individuals at early ontogenic stages. Our results suggested that moderate clipping intensities could induce only an over-compensation response in perennial grasses at both the early ontogenic stage and phenological period, and the ability of compensatory growth gradually decreased with the progression of the ontogenic stage. This is of great significance to the primary production of grasslands subjected to herbivory.

Highlights

Plants foraged partially or entirely by herbivores are common in grassland ecosystems
The clipping intensities, phenological periods, and ontogenic stages affected the growth of vegetative tillers, and the biomass or the number of vegetative tillers was significantly higher under the 50% clipping treatment at the jointing and booting periods for grade 1 tufts, as shown in Figures 2 and 3
The results indicated that the growth of vegetative tillers tended to increase significantly when moderate clipping was performed at the early phenological period for individuals at early ontogenic stages

Summary

Introduction

Plants foraged partially or entirely by herbivores are common in grassland ecosystems. There are three responses of plants to herbivory, which are under-compensation, complete compensation, and over-compensation, as the results of the co-evolution of plant–herbivore interactions [1]. Compensatory plant growth is defined as the ability of plants to offset the adverse effects of tissue damage, restore organic functionality, and maintain normal growth after herbivore foraging [2]. The changes in the activity of lateral meristems after breaking of apical dominance [3], the leaf photosynthetic rate [4], the relative growth rate [5], and the redistribution of carbohydrates [6,7,8]. Have been considered to be the mechanisms of plants to compensate for lost tissue. The breaking of apical dominance after herbivore foraging could initiate the activity of the lateral meristems.

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