Simulating life history trade-offs of clonal plants in drought

Abstract

This study investigates responses of clonal plants and non-clonal plants to drought and their competition results using a spatial simulator based on clonal and nonclonal life history strategies. The clonal and non-clonal plants are designed as two phenotypes of one generic species with facultative clonal growth. Therefore, both phenotypes share the same life histories beside their allocation to aboveground and belowground growth, resulting in differences in leaf biomass, underground storage, and seed reproduction. Clonal plants tend to store biomass underground which would boost survival in the long-term, while non-clonal plants invest towards aboveground growth and thus more seed reproduction in the short-term. It is shown that allocation to storage in clonal plants provide them with an advantage when faced with severe drought since they can resprout from belowground. In comparison, non-clonal plants do better when there is no drought as they allocate more to aboveground growth and seeds. The simulations results have demonstrated how clonal life histories might impact plant population dynamics under drought, which might increase in frequency and extent as anthropogenic climate change continues. It also can be easily parameterized to investigate other species of interest under other environmental conditions.