Abstract
Spatial patchiness and temporal variability in water availability are common in nature under global climate change, which can remarkably influence adaptive responses of clonal plants, i.e. clonal integration (translocating resources between connected ramets). However, little is known about the effects of spatial patchiness and temporal heterogeneity in water on growth and clonal integration between congeneric invasive and native Hydrocotyle species. In a greenhouse experiment, we subjected severed or no severed (intact) fragments of Hydrocotyle vulgaris, a highly invasive species in China, and its co-existing, native congener H. sibthorpioides to different spatial patchiness (homogeneous and patchy) and temporal interval (low and high interval) in water supply. Clonal integration had significant positive effects on growth of both species. In the homogeneous water conditions, clonal integration greatly improved the growth in fragments of both species under low interval in water. However, in the patchy water conditions, clonal integration significantly increased growth in both ramets and fragments of H. vulgaris under high interval in water. Therefore, spatial patchiness and temporal interval in water altered the effects of clonal integration of both species, especially for H. vulgaris. The adaptation of H. vulgaris might lead to invasive growth and potential spread under the global water variability.
Highlights
Spatial patchiness and temporal variability in water availability are common in nature under global climate change, which can remarkably influence adaptive responses of clonal plants, i.e. clonal integration
The effects of temporal interval in water supply were significant for the fragments and the distal parts of H. vulgaris but not for these of H. sibthorpioides, indicating that the growth was greater in the high interval treatments compared to the low interval ones (P < 0.05)(Table 1, Figs 1–3)
In the patchy water conditions, the significant effects of clonal integration significantly increased the growth in both ramets and fragments of H. vulgaris (P < 0.05) but no for H. sibthorpioides (P > 0.05) under the high interval in water treatment (Table 1; Figs 1–3). These results suggest that the spatial patchiness and temporal interval in water partly altered the effects of clonal integration of both species, especially for H. vulgaris
Summary
Spatial patchiness and temporal variability in water availability are common in nature under global climate change, which can remarkably influence adaptive responses of clonal plants, i.e. clonal integration (translocating resources between connected ramets). Little is known about the effects of spatial patchiness and temporal heterogeneity in water on growth and clonal integration between congeneric invasive and native Hydrocotyle species. Clonal plants usually spread and establish with a connected-ramet system in patchy habitat with different resource supply via stolons or rhizomes[12,14]. The performance of these plants is often better in heterogeneous habitats by effects of physiological integration, i.e. a transport of resources from source-sites to sink-sites within www.nature.com/scientificreports/. It is not known whether or to what extent this is the case
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