Spatio-temporal differences in leaf physiology are associated with fire, not drought, in a clonally integrated shrub
| Autor: | Rory C. O’Connor, Kimberly O’Keefe, Emily R. Wedel, Jesse B. Nippert, Braden Hoch |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Vegetative reproduction ved/biology.organism_classification_rank.species Growing season Physiology Cornus drummondii Context (language use) gas exchange Plant Science leaf physiology shrub encroachment 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Shrub Aobpla/1048 Studies Aobpla/1009 Ecosystem Water cycle biology AcademicSubjects/SCI01210 ved/biology food and beverages biology.organism_classification tallgrass prairie Disturbance (ecology) Clonal shrubs 010606 plant biology & botany |
| Zdroj: | AoB Plants |
| ISSN: | 2041-2851 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/aobpla/plab037 |
| Popis: | In highly disturbed environments, clonality facilitates plant survival via resprouting after disturbance, resource sharing among interconnected stems and vegetative reproduction. These traits likely contribute to the encroachment of deep-rooted clonal shrubs in tallgrass prairie. Clonal shrubs have access to deep soil water and are typically thought of as relatively insensitive to environmental variability. However, how leaf physiological traits differ among stems within individual clonal shrubs (hereafter ‘intra-clonal’) in response to extreme environmental variation (i.e. drought or fire) is unclear. Accounting for intra-clonal differences among stems in response to disturbance is needed to more accurately parameterize models that predict the effects of shrub encroachment on ecosystem processes. We assessed intra-clonal leaf-level physiology of the most dominant encroaching shrub in Kansas tallgrass prairie, Cornus drummondii, in response to precipitation and fire. We compared leaf gas exchange rates from the periphery to centre within shrub clones during a wet (2015) and extremely dry (2018) year. We also compared leaf physiology between recently burned shrubs (resprouts) with unburned shrubs in 2018. Resprouts had higher gas exchange rates and leaf nitrogen content than unburned shrubs, suggesting increased rates of carbon gain can contribute to recovery after fire. In areas recently burned, resprouts had higher gas exchange rates in the centre of the shrub than the periphery. In unburned areas, leaf physiology remained constant across the growing season within clonal shrubs (2015 and 2018). Results suggest single measurements within a shrub are likely sufficient to parameterize models to understand the effects of shrub encroachment on ecosystem carbon and water cycles, but model parameterization may require additional complexity in the context of fire. Clonal shrubs are encroaching at an accelerated rate compared to non-clonal shrubs in tallgrass prairie. We compared leaf physiology from the periphery to the centre within the most dominant encroaching shrub in a Kansas tallgrass prairie. We found that leaf physiology does not differ among interconnected stems during a wet or dry year but does differ after fire. Results suggest single measurements within shrub clones are sufficient to parameterize models used to understand the effects of shrub encroachment on ecosystem carbon and water cycles, but models may require additional complexity in the context of fire. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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