Partitioning Patterns Research Articles

Contrasting patterns of accumulation, partitioning, and remobilization of biomass and phosphorus in a maize cultivar

Maize growth, organ development, and yield formation are highly controlled by the manner in which the plant captures, partition, and remobilizes biomass and phosphorus (P). Better understanding of biomass and P accumulation, partition, and remobilization processes will improve modeling of crop resource use. However, there is still a lack of detailed data to parameterize the modeling of these processes, particularly for modern maize cultivars. A two-year (2016 and 2017) field experiment with three P fertilization treatments (0 (P0), 75 (P75), and 300 (P300) kg P2O5 ha−1) was conducted on a Fluvo-aquic soil (Quzhou, Hebei province, China) to collect data and quantify key processes for a representative modern maize cultivar (Zhengdan 958) widely grown in China. The proportions of biomass and P partitioned into various maize organs were unaffected by P application rate. Zhengdan 958 showed a much lower leaf-senescence rate than older cultivars, resulting in post-silking leaf photosynthesis being sufficient to meet grain biomass demand. In contrast, 50%–85% of leaf P and 15%–50% of stem P accumulated pre-silking were remobilized into grain, in spite of the large proportion of post-silking P uptake. Our results are consistent with the theory that plants use resources according to the priority order of re-allocation from senescence followed by assimilation and uptake, with the re-translocation of reserves last. The results also enabled us to estimate the threshold P concentrations of Zhengdan 958 for modeling crop P demand. The critical leaf P concentration for individual leaves was 0.25%–0.30%, with a corresponding specific leaf P (SLP) of 75–100 mg P m−2. The structural P concentration for leaf was 0.01%, corresponding to an SLP of 3.8 mg P m−2. The maximum P concentrations of leaves and stems were 0.33% and 0.29%. The residual P concentration for stems was 0.006%.

Effects of resource sharing directionality on physiologically integrated clones of the invasive Carpobrotus edulis

Abstract Aims One of the key traits associated with clonal growth in plants is the capacity for physiological integration, which allows resource sharing between connected ramets within a clonal system. Resource transport is expected to occur following a source–sink relationship: from ramets established in rich patches to ramets growing in poor patches. However, some experiments have shown that acropetal transport (from basal to apical modules) usually exceeds basipetal transport (from apical to basal ramets). In this study, we aimed to determine the resource transport directionality in physiologically integrated modules of the invader Carpobrotus edulis. Methods We conducted two manipulative experiments under common garden conditions that studied the effect of different nutrient levels located at different positions (basal, medial and apical) on connected and disconnected clonal systems of C. edulis. We compared the biomass partitioning patterns and final biomass of ramets to elucidate whether the effect of physiological integration is affected by the directionality of the resource transport. Important Findings Results indicate a prevalent acropetal transport of resources in C. edulis, with a developmentally programmed division of labor where basal ramets were specialized in obtaining soil-based resources and apical ramets specialized in aboveground growth. This biomass partitioning pattern was not affected by the nutrient conditions in which basal or apical ramets were growing, although the highest benefit was achieved by apical ramets growing under the most stressed conditions. This developmentally programmed division of labor is expected to increase the lateral growth of C. edulis, and therefore could have meaningful implications for the expansion of this invasive species.

Partitioning Pattern of Natural Products Based on Molecular Properties Descriptors Representing Drug-Likeness

A cheminformatics procedure for a partitioning model based on 135 natural compounds including Flavonoids, Saponins, Alkaloids, Terpenes and Triterpenes with drug-like features based on a descriptors pool was developed. The knowledge about the applicability of natural products as a unique source for the development of new candidates towards deadly infectious disease is a contemporary challenge for drug discovery. We propose a partitioning scheme for unveiling drug-likeness candidates with properties that are important for a prompt and efficient drug discovery process. In the present study, the vantage point is about the matching of descriptors to build the partitioning model applied to natural compounds with diversity in structures and complexity of action towards the severe diseases, as the actual SARS-CoV-2 virus. In the times of the de novo design techniques, such tools based on a chemometric and symmetrical effect by the implied descriptors represent another noticeable sign for the power and level of the descriptors applicability in drug discovery in establishing activity and target prediction pipeline for unknown drugs properties.

Biomass partitioning pattern of Rheum tanguticum on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau was affected by water-related factors

To identify the patterns of aboveground biomass (MA) and belowground biomass (MB) partitioning of a tall perennial herbal plant, Rheum tanguticum Maxim. ex Balf. (R. tanguticum), we determined MA, MB, total biomass (MT), and below- to aboveground biomass ratio (MB/MA) through three consecutive sampling campaigns during 2016–2018 on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. We then documented MA, MB, MT, and MB/MA, and their log–log relationship with environmental factors using data from 47 sites. MB/MA showed a significant negative relationship with mean annual precipitation (MAP) and altitude but a positive relationship with mean annual temperature (MAT), soil total nitrogen content (TN), and soil humidity (SH). While MT increased with altitude and decreased with MAT, TN, and SH, but the relationship between MAP and MT was not significant. Reduced major axis analysis revealed a slope of the log–log relationship between MA and MB to be 1.16, supporting an allometric partitioning pattern of R. tanguticum. Furthermore, the scaling exponent revealed different changes to different environmental factors. Specifically, scaling exponent was sensitive to the gradient of MAP and SH, but not to the gradient of altitude, MAT, or TN. This indicated that the scaling exponent was affected by water availability.

Signatures of Hydrologic Function Across the Critical Zone Observatory Network

AbstractDespite a multitude of small catchment studies, we lack a deep understanding of how variations in critical zone architecture lead to variations in hydrologic states and fluxes. This study characterizes hydrologic dynamics of 15 catchments of the U.S. Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) network where we hypothesized that our understanding of subsurface structure would illuminate patterns of hydrologic partitioning. The CZOs collect data sets that characterize the physical, chemical, and biological architecture of the subsurface, while also monitoring hydrologic fluxes such as streamflow, precipitation, and evapotranspiration. For the first time, we collate time series of hydrologic variables across the CZO network and begin the process of examining hydrologic signatures across sites. We find that catchments with low baseflow indices and high runoff sensitivity to storage receive most of their precipitation as rain and contain clay‐rich regolith profiles, prominent argillic horizons, and/or anthropogenic modifications. In contrast, sites with high baseflow indices and low runoff sensitivity to storage receive the majority of precipitation as snow and have more permeable regolith profiles. The seasonal variability of water balance components is a key control on the dynamic range of hydraulically connected water in the critical zone. These findings lead us to posit that water balance partitioning and streamflow hydraulics are linked through the coevolution of critical zone architecture but that much work remains to parse these controls out quantitatively.

Global patterns of accumulation and partitioning of metals in halophytic saltmarsh taxa: A phylogenetic comparative approach

The current study represents the first attempt to analyse quantitatively, within a phylogenetic framework, uptake and partitioning patterns of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in extant saltmarsh taxa globally, and to assess associations of these patterns with various plant traits indicative of their halophytic adaptations. Despite saltmarsh being diverse taxonomically, most saltmarsh taxa accumulate metals to roots at, or above, unity (> 1). Further, there is significant translocation from roots to shoot for Cu, Zn and Cd (≤ 1), however, Pb is less mobile (TF = 0.65). Patterns of accumulation were similar among families, except greater Cd accumulation to roots in members of Juncaceae. Patterns of uptake to roots and translocation to leaves were broadly similar among plant type, plant form, habitat and photosynthetic mode. Zinc is lower in the leaves of salt-secreting species for some closely related taxa, suggesting some species co-excrete sodium (Na+) and Zn2+ through glands in leaf tissue. Salinity tolerance has no relationship to metal uptake and translocation. Translocation of Zn is greater at lower Zn sediment exposures, reflecting its active uptake and essentiality, but such bias does not affect outcomes of analyses when included as a covariate.

Temporal Influences on Selenium Partitioning, Trophic Transfer, and Exposure in a Major U.S. River

Hydrologic and irrigation regimes mediate the timing of selenium (Se) mobilization to rivers, but the extent to which patterns in Se uptake and trophic transfer through recipient food webs reflect the temporal variation in Se delivery is unknown. We investigated Se mobilization, partitioning, and trophic transfer along approximately 60 river miles of the selenium-impaired segment of the Lower Gunnison River (Colorado, USA) during six sampling trips between June 2015 and October 2016. We found temporal patterns in Se partitioning and trophic transfer to be independent of those in dissolved Se concentrations and that the recipient food web sustained elevated Se concentrations from earlier periods of high Se mobilization. Using an ecosystem-scale Se accumulation model tailored to the Lower Gunnison River, we predicted that the endangered Razorback Sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) and Colorado Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) achieve whole-body Se concentrations exceeding aquatic life protection criteria during periods of high runoff and irrigation activity (April-August) that coincide with susceptible phases of reproduction and early-life development. The results of this study challenge assumptions about Se trophodynamics in fast-flowing waters and introduce important considerations for the management of Se risks for biota in river ecosystems.

Enhancing Engagement of Citizen Scientists to Monitor Precipitation Phase

Recent literature has highlighted how citizen science approaches can engage volunteers, expand scientific literacy, and accomplish targeted research objectives. However, there is limited information on how specific recruitment, retention, and engagement strategies enhance scientific outcomes. To help fill this important information gap, we detail the use of various approaches to engage citizen scientists in the collection of precipitation phase data (rain, snow, or mixed). In our study region, the Sierra Nevada and Central Basin and Range of California and Nevada near Lake Tahoe, a marked amount of annual precipitation falls near freezing. At these air temperatures, weather forecasts, land surface models, and satellites all have difficulty correctly predicting and observing precipitation phase, making visual observations the most accurate approach. From January to May 2020, citizen scientists submitted timestamped, geotagged observations of precipitation phase through the Citizen Science Tahoe mobile phone application. Our recruitment strategy included messaging to winter, weather, and outdoor enthusiasts combined with amplification through regional groups, which resulted in over 199 citizen scientists making 1,003 ground-based observations of rain, snow, and mixed precipitation. We enhanced engagement and retention by targeting specific storms in the region through text message alerts that also allowed for questions, clarifications, and training opportunities. We saw a high retention rate (88%) and a marked increase in the number of observations following alerts. For quality control of the data, we combined various meteorological datasets and compared to the citizen science observations. We found that 96.5% of submitted data passed our quality control protocol, which enabled us to evaluate rain-snow partitioning patterns. Snow was the dominant form of precipitation at air temperatures below and slightly above freezing, with both ecoregions expressing a 50% rain-snow air temperature threshold of 4.2°C, a warmer value than what would be incorporated into most land surface models. Thus, the use of a lower air temperature threshold in these areas would produce inaccuracies in event-based rain-snow proportions. Overall, our high retention rate, data quality, and rain-snow analysis were supported by the recruitment strategy, text message communication, and simplicity of the survey design. We suggest other citizen science projects may follow the approaches detailed herein to achieve their scientific objectives.

Self-Supervised Video Representation Learning by Uncovering Spatio-Temporal Statistics.

This paper proposes a novel pretext task to address the self-supervised video representation learning problem. Specifically, given an unlabeled video clip, we compute a series of spatio-temporal statistical summaries, such as the spatial location and dominant direction of the largest motion, the spatial location and dominant color of the largest color diversity along the temporal axis, etc. Then a neural network is built and trained to yield the statistical summaries given the video frames as inputs. In order to alleviate the learning difficulty, we employ several spatial partitioning patterns to encode rough spatial locations instead of exact spatial Cartesian coordinates. Our approach is inspired by the observation that human visual system is sensitive to rapidly changing contents in the visual field, and only needs impressions about rough spatial locations to understand the visual contents. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we conduct extensive experiments with four 3D backbone networks, i.e., C3D, 3D-ResNet, R(2+1)D and S3D-G. The results show that our approach outperforms the existing approaches across these backbone networks on four downstream video analysis tasks including action recognition, video retrieval, dynamic scene recognition, and action similarity labeling. The source code is publicly available at: https://github.com/laura-wang/video_repres_sts.

TrIPP—a method for tracking the inheritance patterns of proteins in living cells—reveals retention of Tup1p, Fpr4p, and Rpd3L in the mother cell

SummaryInheritance of chromatin-bound proteins theoretically plays a role in the epigenetic transmission of cellular phenotypes. Protein segregation during cell division is however poorly understood. We now describe TrIPP (Tracking the Inheritance Patterns of Proteins): a live cell imaging method for tracking maternal proteins during asymmetric cell divisions of budding yeast. Our analysis of the partitioning pattern of a test set of 18 chromatin-associated proteins reveals that abundant and moderately abundant maternal proteins segregate stochastically and symmetrically between the two cells with the exception of Rxt3p, Fpr4p, and Tup1p, which are preferentially retained in the mother. Low abundance proteins also tend to be retained in the mother cell with the exception of Sir2p and the linker histone H1. Our analysis of chromatin protein behavior in single cells reveals potentially general trends such as coupled protein synthesis and decay and a correlation between protein half-lives and cell-cycle duration.

Elevation is a stronger predictor of morphological trait divergence than competition in a radiation of tropical lizards.

Adaptations for efficient performance are expected to shape animal morphology based on selection for microhabitat use and ecological forces. The presence of competitor species is predicted to cause niches to contract and enhance trait divergence. Therefore, increased species richness is expected to lead to greater trait divergence, and to result in reduced overlap and similarity between morphologies of sympatric species. We examined patterns of morphospace occupancy and partitioning in the skink fauna of New Guinea, the world's largest tropical island. Because skink species richness is largely decoupled from elevation in New Guinea, we could examine the effects of both factors (as proxies for competition and abiotic conditions), on morphospace occupancy and partitioning. We measured 1,860 specimens from 79 species of skinks throughout Papua New Guinea, and examined their morphospace occupancy in a spatial context. We calculated, for each assemblage within equal-area cells, the volume of morphospace occupied by all skinks, the mean volume occupied per species, and the mean distance and overlap between all species pairs. We then examined whether these metrics are related to species richness and elevation. Elevation is a stronger predictor of morphospace occupancy than species richness. As elevation increases, intraspecific variation decreases and morphologies become more similar to each other such that overall morphospace occupancy decreases. Highland skinks are, on average, smaller, thinner and shorter limbed than lowland species. We hypothesise that harsh climates in the New Guinea highland habitats impose strong selection on skinks to occupy specific areas of morphospace that facilitate efficient thermoregulation in suboptimal thermal conditions. We conclude that the effect of competition on trait divergence on a community and assemblage scale is eclipsed by abiotic selection pressures in these harsh environments.

Annual Partitioning Patterns of Labyrinthulomycetes Protists Reveal Their Multifaceted Role in Marine Microbial Food Webs.

Heterotrophic microbes play a key role in remineralizing organic material in the coastal ocean. While there is a significant body of literature examining heterotrophic bacterioplankton and phytoplankton communities, much less is known about the diversity, dynamics, and ecology of eukaryotic heterotrophs. Here, we focus on the Labyrinthulomycetes, a fungus-like protistan group whose biomass can exceed that of the bacterioplankton in coastal waters. We examined their diversity and community structure in a weekly temperate coastal ocean time series. Their seasonal community patterns were related to temperature, insolation, dissolved inorganic carbon, fungal abundance, ammonia, chlorophyll a, pH, and other environmental variables. Similar to the bacterioplankton, annual community patterns of the Labyrinthulomycetes were dominated by a few persistent taxa with summer or winter preferences. However, like the patterns of fungi at this site, the majority of the Labyrinthulomycetes phylotypes occurred mostly as short, reoccurring, season-specific blooms. Furthermore, some specific phylotypes of Labyrinthulomycetes displayed time-lagged correlations or cooccurrences with bacterial, algal, or fungal phylotypes, suggesting their potentially multifaceted involvement in the marine food webs. Overall, this study reports niche partitioning between closely related Labyrinthulomycetes and identifies distinct ecotypes and temporal patterns compared to bacterioplankton and fungi.IMPORTANCE Increasing evidence has shown that heterotrophic microeukaryotes are an important component in global marine ecosystems, while their diversity and ecological functions remain largely unknown. Without appropriately incorporating these organisms into the food web models, our current understanding of marine microbial community ecology is incomplete, which may further hamper broader studies of biogeochemistry and climate change. This study focuses on a major group of unicellular fungus-like protists (Labyrinthulomycetes) and reveals their distinct annual community patterns relative to fungi and bacteria. Results of our observations provide new information on the community structure and ecology of this protistan group and shed light on the intricate ecological roles of unicellular heterotrophic eukaryotes in the coastal oceans.

Biomass Mass Production and Partitioning in Seedling of Harerghe Coffee Genotypes Under Deficit Irrigation at Jimma, Southwest Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, the coffee production is highly constrained by drought. To overcome such problem, knowing the behavior of coffee genotype’s biomass accumulation pattern to different parts under contrasting moisture stress is important in selection of drought tolerant genotypes. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to evaluate and characterize the biomass partitioning patterns of Harerghe coffee genotypes as influenced by deficit irrigation in rain shelter at Jimma agricultural research center. An experiment was conducted in completely randomized block design with three replications, where treatments consisted of three deficit level (40, 80 and 120% of ETc) and six genotypes (H-674/98, H-739/98, H-823/98, H-981/98, H-929/98 and H-857/98). The result showed that the coffee dry-biomass partitioning patterns were significantly varied due deficit irrigation and genotypes as well as their interactions. Overall, the biomass assimilation and allocation were higher for roots (37%) under 40% ETc and finally dropped to 23% under well watered seedlings, the investment made in root at the expense of shoot in drought conditions, enables the plants to extract more water from dipper soil layers, if water is limited in upper soil layers Conversely, the dry matters portioned to leaf were greater (48%) under well watered seedlings and finally dropped to 26% under water stressed conditions. The accumulation of more dry-mater to leaf in well irrigated environment enables the plants to enhance photosynthetic capacity and thereby improve plant growth. Lastly, the study of dry biomass partitioning patterns in different parts of coffee plant is crucial important to decide appropriate watering amount and identifying drought tolerant genotypes for future breeding program under variable climatic conditions.

Temporal resource partitioning of wildebeest carcasses by scavengers after riverine mass mortality events

AbstractScavengers play an important role in nutrient recycling and disease control, and this role may be particularly critical after mass mortality events, such as those caused by epidemics, culling, or natural disasters. Current work on scavenger ecology has focused on use of single carcasses, but behaviors are likely to be different at mass mortality events, in which high resource abundance can prolong the spatial and temporal availability of carcasses. Little is currently known about how scavengers respond to large die‐offs and understanding scavenger use and succession patterns at mass mortality events has important implications for disease ecology. We used photographic time series and river‐side surveys of scavengers using carcasses to investigate scavenger use and succession on wildebeest carcasses that resulted from annual mass drownings in the Mara River, Kenya. In addition, we used telemetry data for tagged avian scavengers to assess individual use of mass drownings. Density of avian scavengers per carcass was almost two orders of magnitude lower at mass drownings than has been documented previously for single carcasses on land. Scavengers demonstrated patterns of temporal resource partitioning, with large‐bodied avian scavengers more common initially, followed by small‐bodied avian scavengers, and then by insectivorous birds and non‐avian scavengers. Avian scavengers also differed in daily activity patterns, with marabou storks more common in the morning and late afternoon and white‐backed and Rüppell’s vultures more common mid‐day. Telemetry data indicated that approximately half of tagged vultures used mass drowning events but only spent a small proportion of their time there, suggesting that competition still plays an important role in scavenger dynamics at mass mortality events and that the rewards of such abundant resources may be offset by the risk of foraging in the river. Further research on scavenger behavior during mass mortality events is needed to better understand the role of scavengers in decomposition of carcasses and disease control during these events.

Interactive Effect of Elevated CO2 and Moisture Stress on Carbohydrate Partitioning Pattern

Interactive Effect of Elevated CO2 and Moisture Stress on Carbohydrate Partitioning Pattern

Morphology, Performance, and Ecology of Three Sympatric Turtles in a Tropical Dry Forest

Resource partitioning in communities is often achieved by sympatric species having different morphologies that allow them to access different resources. This is because differences in morphology influence an organism's capability to perform a task that is relevant to their ecology. Here, we compare limb, shell, and head morphology, swimming performance, habitat use, and diet of three species (Rhinoclemmys rubida , R. pulcherrima, and Kinosternon chimalhuaca) that co-occur in the tropical dry forest of Chamela, Jalisco, Mexico. We found that these species do not overlap in both habitat or diet, and the overlap that we observed in habitat was contrasted by differences in diet. We also found a consistent relationship among limb and shell morphology, swimming speed, and habitat. Rhinoclemmys rubida occupies the driest deciduous forest atop and along hills, has shorter hands, less interdigital webbing, longer plastrons, more-domed shells, and slower swimming speeds in proportion to body size. In contrast, Kinosternon chimalhuaca exclusively occupies arroyos or seasonal streams, has longer hands, more interdigital webbing, smaller plastrons, less-domed shells, and faster swimming speeds in proportion to its body size. Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima was found in all habitats and intermediate in morphology and swimming speed between the other two species. Therefore, in this study system, limb and shell morphology are good indicators of habitat differences between turtle species. These differences are likely due to the influence that limb and shell morphology have on swimming performance. Relationships between head morphology and diet were less clear, which might be the result of changes in behavior or habitat rather than morphology. Patterns of resource partitioning in Chamela seem to coincide with other studies of turtle communities, which suggests that relationships among morphology, performance, and ecology that we observe here might be a general pattern across turtles.

Comparison of carbohydrate partitioning and expression patterns of some genes involved in carbohydrate biosynthesis pathways in annual and biennial species of Cichorium spp.

Variation in metabolism and partitioning of carbohydrates, particularly fructans, between annual and perennial Cichorium species remains a challenging topic. To address this problem, an annual (endive, Cichorium endive L. var. Crispum; Asteraceae) and a biennial species (chicory, Cichorium intybus L. var. Witloof; Asteraceae) were compared with in terms of variability in carbohydrate accumulation and expression patterns of fructan-active enzyme genes, as well as sucrose metabolism at various growth and developmental stages. In general, constituents such as 1-kestose, nystose, and inulin were detected only in the root of chicory and were not present in any of the endive tissues. For both species, flower tissue contained maximum levels of both fructose and glucose, while for sucrose, more fluctuations were observed. On the other hand, all the genes under study exhibited variation, not only between the two species but also among different tissues at different sampling times. In endive root compared to endive leaf, the expression of cell wall invertase genes and sucrose accumulation decreased simultaneously, indicating the limited capacity of its roots to absorb sucrose, a precursor to inulin production. In addition, low expression of fructan: fructan fructosyltransferase in endive root compared to chicory root confirmed the inability of endive to inulin synthesis. Overall, annual and biennial species were different in the production of inulin, transport, remobilization, and unloading of sucrose.

Microplastics act as vectors for antibiotic resistance genes in landfill leachate: The enhanced roles of the long-term aging process.

Microplastics (MPs) are found to be ubiquitous and serve as vectors for other contaminants, and the inevitable aging process changes MP properties and fates. However, whether the MPs in aging process affects the fates of antibiotic resistance gene (ARGs) in aquatic environments is poorly understood. Herein, the physicochemical property alteration of MPs being aged in landfill leachate, an important reservoir of MPs and ARGs, was investigated, and microbial community evolution and ARGs occurrence of MP surface during the aging process were analyzed. Aging process remarkably altered surface properties, including increasing specific surface areas, causing the formation of oxygen-containing groups, and changing surface morphology, which further increased the probability of microbial colonization. The bacterial assemblage on MPs showed higher biofilm-forming and pathogenic potential compared to leachate. ARGs quantification results suggested that MPs exhibited selective enrichment for ARGs in a ratio of 5.7-103 folds, and the aging process enhanced the enrichment potential. Further co-occurrence networks suggested that the existence of non-random, closer and more stable ARGs-bacterial taxa relations on MP surface affected the ARG transmission. The study of ARG partitioning on MPs indicated that extracellular DNA was a nonnegligible reservoir of ARGs attached on MP surface, and that biofilm bacterial community influenced ARGs partitioning pattern during the aging process. This study confirmed that the aging process could enhance the potential of MPs as vectors for ARGs, which would promote the holistic understanding of MP behavior and risk in natural environments.

Global patterns of rainfall partitioning by invasive woody plants

AbstractAimInvasive species have the potential to alter hydrological processes by changing the local water balance. However, general patterns of how rainfall is partitioned into interception, throughfall and stemflow for invasive species worldwide have been seldom explored. We (a) describe the percentage of interception, throughfall and stemflow for invasive woody plant species; (b) analyse the influence of morphological attributes (i.e. life‐form, bark roughness, leaf type, leaf phenology and leaf area index) of invasive species on rainfall partitioning; and (c) compare the rainfall partitioning fluxes for co‐occurring invasive and native species, testing whether the variation in these fluxes depends on water availability of the study location.LocationGlobal.Time periodPresent.Major taxa studiedPlants.MethodsWe compiled data of 100 studies that assessed rainfall partitioning by invasive species (n = 67) and registered their morphological attributes. By means of a meta‐analysis we compared the rainfall partitioning by native and invasive species (n = 47 comparisons) and assessed how their fluxes were affected by water availability.ResultsInterception, throughfall and stemflow ranged from 1.6–59.5, 39.1–92.7 and 0.1–31.6% of total rainfall, respectively. The bark roughness and leaf type were the most important attributes driving rainfall partitioning fluxes. While rough‐barked species constrain rainfall inputs by promoting higher losses due to interception, smooth‐barked species with broad leaves enhance the amount of rainwater reaching the soil by maximizing stemflow. For pairwise comparisons, invasive species have higher stemflow values than native species for both drylands and humid areas, and higher throughfall in drylands, but less in humid areas.Main conclusionsOur findings suggest that specific morphological attributes of invasive species determine higher localized water inputs, which may represent an ecohydrological advantage, particularly in water‐limited ecosystems. These insights also suggest that the ecological role of stemflow, throughfall and interception should be considered in future plant invasions research.

Partition of biomass and nitrogen in a potato crop under three nitrogen fertilization treatments

Nitrogen nutrition considerably influences the process of growing and producing potato crops. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of nitrogen nutrition on the pattern of biomass and nitrogen partitioning during the growth of potato crop in Mérida, Mérida, Venezuela. Experimental land plots were set, with a randomized blocks design, and with three different fertilization treatment settings for the "Granola" cultivar. The first one without nitrogen (0-N), the next one with 133 Kg N Ha-1 (133-N), and the last one with 400 Kg N Ha-1 (400-N). In the main phenological stages of the crop, biomass and nitrogen levels were measured for each organ. The performance of the tubers and the total biomass are strongly influenced by the availability of nitrogen and assimilatory biomass. The total biomass production, as well as the biomass and nitrogen partitioning to each organ, showed the following sequence: 400-N > 133-N > 0-N. However, biomass and nitrogen partitioning to the roots and stolons was higher in the treatment with limited nitrogen levels. Proportional changes among aboveground and belowground biomass are adaptive responses to nitrogen deficit conditions, which, in their turn, are determining factors in crop production.