Effects of different disturbances on plant growth and content of main medicinal ingredients of rhizomatous clonal plant Glycyrrhiza uralensis in a natural population

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2020.0188

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims Long-term enclosure and grazing prohibition protects Glycyrrhiza uralensis natural population from external disturbances, such as excessive excavation or overgrazing, but it does not prompt the rapid recovery of the damaged G. uralensis natural population. Appropriate external disturbance is always beneficial to the growth and reproduction of clonal plants such as G. uralensis due to plant clonality. But the roles and mechanisms of disturbances and plant clonality in the recovery of damaged G. uralensis natural populations are still not clear.
Methods A natural population of G. uralensis was chosen in the present research, and a field experiment with both clipping (simulated grazing disturbance) and ramet digging out (simulated human excavation disturbance) treatments was conducted to test the effects of different disturbances on plant growth and the content of medicinal ingredients of G. uralensis in the natural population.
Important findings The results showed that moderate disturbances, including clipping and ramet digging out treatments, had no significant effects on the ramet density, height and shoot biomass of individual ramets of G. uralensis in the natural population, suggesting the same compensation growth in G. uralensis. In contrast, G. uralensis showed different responses to severe disturbances, depending on the disturbance type. Significantly lower ramet density, height and shoot biomass of individual ramets were observed in G. uralensis under severe clipping treatment, indicating undercompensated growth; while significantly higher ramet height, shoot biomass of individual ramets and also total shoot biomass of plant population were observed under severe digging out treatment, suggesting super-compensatory growth in G. uralensis. Plant clonality, including clonal integration, clonal storage and selective placement of ramets, played important roles in the response of G. uralensis to external disturbance. The content of liquritin and glycyrrhizic acid in taproot of G. uralensis was improved to some extent by external disturbance, suggesting that disturbance at certain levels may improve the medicinal material quality of G. uralensis.

Key words: compensatory growth, disturbance, rhizome network, clonal plant, natural population, medicinal materials quality, Glycyrrhiza uralensis

YE Xue-Hua, XUE Jian-Guo, XIE Xiu-Fang, HUANG Zhen-Ying. Effects of different disturbances on plant growth and content of main medicinal ingredients of rhizomatous clonal plant Glycyrrhiza uralensis in a natural population[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2020, 44(9): 951-961.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2020.0188

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2020/V44/I9/951

Figures/Tables 5

Fig. 1 Experiments with both clipping (simulated grazing disturbance) and ramet digging out (simulated human excavation disturbance) treatments of Glycyrrhiza uralensis.

Table 1 Effects of clipping and digging treatments on plant growth and content of main medicinal ingredients in the taproots of Glycyrrhiza uralensis

性状 Trait	刈割 Clipping			挖除 Digging
	df	F	p	df	F	p
植物生长 Plant growth
分株高度 Height of ramets	2, 89	8.513	<0.001	2, 89	3.823	0.026
分株冠幅 Canopy of ramets	2, 89	3.113	0.049	2, 89	3.896	0.024
分株密度 Density of ramets	2, 17	5.051	0.021	2, 17	2.499	0.116
主根长 Taproot length	2, 17	0.296	0.748	2, 17	0.012	0.988
芦头直径 Diameter of reed head	2, 17	1.425	0.271	2, 17	1.806	0.198
分株生物量 Biomass of single ramet
地上生物量 Shoot biomass	2, 17	2.241	0.141	2, 17	3.867	0.044
主根生物量 Root biomass	2, 17	0.046	0.956	2, 17	0.672	0.525
主根药用成分含量 Medicinal ingredients
甘草苷含量 Liquritin content	2, 17	1.613	0.252	2, 17	2.964	0.103
甘草酸含量 Glycyrrhizic acid content	2, 17	1.722	0.233	2, 17	2.040	0.186

Fig. 2 Shoot (A, B) and taproot biomass (C, D) of individual ramets of Glycyrrhiza uralensis under different experimental treatments (mean ± SE). Different lowercase letters represent significant differences between different treatments (p < 0.05).

Fig. 3 Ramet density (A, B), ramet height (C, D), ramet canopy (E, F) and taproot length (G, H) in Glycyrrhiza uralensis under different experimental treatments (mean ± SE). Different lowercase letters represent significant differences between different treatments (p < 0.05).

Fig. 4 The content of liquritin (A, B) and glycyrrhizic acid (C, D) of taproot in Glycyrrhiza uralensis under different experimental treatments (mean ± SE). Different lowercase letters represent significant differences between different treatments (p < 0.05).

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