Light intensity drives different growth strategies in two duckweed species: Lemna minor L. and Spirodela polyrhiza (L.) Schleiden

Duckweed species Lemna minor and Spirodela polyrhiza are clonal plants with vegetative organs reduced to a frond and a root in L. minor or a frond and several roots in S. polyrhiza. They reproduce vegetatively by relatively rapid multiplication of their fronds. The habit of S. polyrhiza (large fronds with up to 21 roots) makes it a strong competitor among representatives of the family Lemnaceae, probably due to different resource-use strategies compared to small duckweed. In our study, light was the resource that affected the plants before and during the laboratory experiment. We sampled the plants from natural habitats differing in light conditions (open and shady) and grew them for 16 days in a thermostatic growth room at 22 °C under a 16:8 photoperiod and three light intensities (125, 236, 459 µmol photons m(–2) s(–1)) to investigate the trade-off between frond enlargement and multiplication. Both species from the open habitat had higher growth rates based on the frond numbers and on surface area of fronds compared to plants from the shady habitat. They adopted different species-specific strategies in response to the experimental light conditions. The species size affected the growth rates in L. minor and S. polyrhiza. Spirodela polyrhiza grew slower than L. minor, but both species grew fastest at medium light intensity (236 µmol m(–2) s(–1)). Lemna minor maintained the growth rates at high light intensity, while S. polyrhiza slowed down. Spirodela polyrhiza responded to deteriorating light conditions by increasing its frond surface area, thus optimising light capture. Lemna minor from the shady habitat enhanced light harvest by increasing chlorophyll a concentration, but did not invest more in frond enlargement than L. minor from the open habitat. Under shady conditions, S. polyrhiza is likely to achieve an advantage over L. minor due to the larger frond size of the former. Our findings suggest the existence of a trade-off between size and number in duckweed.