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Root Foraging Increases Performance of the Clonal Plant Potentilla reptans in Heterogeneous Nutrient Environments

BACKGROUND: Plastic root-foraging responses have been widely recognized as an important strategy for plants to explore heterogeneously distributed resources. However, the benefits and costs of root foraging have received little attention. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a greenhouse experiment, w...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wang, Zhengwen, van Kleunen, Mark, During, Heinjo J., Werger, Marinus J. A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3589344/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23472211
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058602
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author Wang, Zhengwen
van Kleunen, Mark
During, Heinjo J.
Werger, Marinus J. A.
author_facet Wang, Zhengwen
van Kleunen, Mark
During, Heinjo J.
Werger, Marinus J. A.
author_sort Wang, Zhengwen
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Plastic root-foraging responses have been widely recognized as an important strategy for plants to explore heterogeneously distributed resources. However, the benefits and costs of root foraging have received little attention. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a greenhouse experiment, we grew pairs of connected ramets of 22 genotypes of the stoloniferous plant Potentilla reptans in paired pots, between which the contrast in nutrient availability was set as null, medium and high, but with the total nutrient amount kept the same. We calculated root-foraging intensity of each individual ramet pair as the difference in root mass between paired ramets divided by the total root mass. For each genotype, we then calculated root-foraging ability as the slope of the regression of root-foraging intensity against patch contrast. For all genotypes, root-foraging intensity increased with patch contrast and the total biomass and number of offspring ramets were lowest at high patch contrast. Among genotypes, root-foraging intensity was positively related to production of offspring ramets and biomass in the high patch-contrast treatment, which indicates an evolutionary benefit of root foraging in heterogeneous environments. However, we found no significant evidence that the ability of plastic foraging imposes costs under homogeneous conditions (i.e. when foraging is not needed). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results show that plants of P. reptans adjust their root-foraging intensity according to patch contrast. Moreover, the results show that the root foraging has an evolutionary advantage in heterogeneous environments, while costs of having the ability of plastic root foraging were absent or very small.
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spelling pubmed-35893442013-03-07 Root Foraging Increases Performance of the Clonal Plant Potentilla reptans in Heterogeneous Nutrient Environments Wang, Zhengwen van Kleunen, Mark During, Heinjo J. Werger, Marinus J. A. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Plastic root-foraging responses have been widely recognized as an important strategy for plants to explore heterogeneously distributed resources. However, the benefits and costs of root foraging have received little attention. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a greenhouse experiment, we grew pairs of connected ramets of 22 genotypes of the stoloniferous plant Potentilla reptans in paired pots, between which the contrast in nutrient availability was set as null, medium and high, but with the total nutrient amount kept the same. We calculated root-foraging intensity of each individual ramet pair as the difference in root mass between paired ramets divided by the total root mass. For each genotype, we then calculated root-foraging ability as the slope of the regression of root-foraging intensity against patch contrast. For all genotypes, root-foraging intensity increased with patch contrast and the total biomass and number of offspring ramets were lowest at high patch contrast. Among genotypes, root-foraging intensity was positively related to production of offspring ramets and biomass in the high patch-contrast treatment, which indicates an evolutionary benefit of root foraging in heterogeneous environments. However, we found no significant evidence that the ability of plastic foraging imposes costs under homogeneous conditions (i.e. when foraging is not needed). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results show that plants of P. reptans adjust their root-foraging intensity according to patch contrast. Moreover, the results show that the root foraging has an evolutionary advantage in heterogeneous environments, while costs of having the ability of plastic root foraging were absent or very small. Public Library of Science 2013-03-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3589344/ /pubmed/23472211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058602 Text en © 2013 Wang et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wang, Zhengwen
van Kleunen, Mark
During, Heinjo J.
Werger, Marinus J. A.
Root Foraging Increases Performance of the Clonal Plant Potentilla reptans in Heterogeneous Nutrient Environments
title Root Foraging Increases Performance of the Clonal Plant Potentilla reptans in Heterogeneous Nutrient Environments
title_full Root Foraging Increases Performance of the Clonal Plant Potentilla reptans in Heterogeneous Nutrient Environments
title_fullStr Root Foraging Increases Performance of the Clonal Plant Potentilla reptans in Heterogeneous Nutrient Environments
title_full_unstemmed Root Foraging Increases Performance of the Clonal Plant Potentilla reptans in Heterogeneous Nutrient Environments
title_short Root Foraging Increases Performance of the Clonal Plant Potentilla reptans in Heterogeneous Nutrient Environments
title_sort root foraging increases performance of the clonal plant potentilla reptans in heterogeneous nutrient environments
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3589344/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23472211
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058602
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