Multiple Regenerative Strategies of Short-Lived Species: An Effect on Geographical Distribution, Preference of Human-Made Habitats and Invasive Status

Abstract

It is expected that plant species with multiple regenerative strategies have a wider ecological amplitude and geographical distribution. However there is still an anxious question why species with multiple regenerative strategies are not more frequent. In the presented work we asked whether short-lived plants with a potential bud bank i) have a wider geographical distribution, ii) occur more frequently in human-made habitats and iii) more frequently possess invasive status in comparison with the short-lived species without this additional regenerative strategy. Results show that short-lived plants with a potential bud bank are i) more widely geographically distributed, ii) under-represented in natural habitats and weakly over-represented in habitats disturbed by human activities and iii) contrary to expectation, less numerous among neophytes than species without a potential bud bank. This suggests that short-lived root-sprouters are more habitat-specialized when compared with such plants without adventitious bud-bank formation, but are more widely geographically distributed. A higher frequency of multiple regeneration strategies seems to be restricted by costs of having this ability in habitats or situations without a disturbance regime.