Chin J Plan Ecolo ›› 1996, Vol. 20 ›› Issue (3): 245-254.

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Effects of Water Resources Supply on Clonal Growth in Pleioblastus maculata Population

Liu Qing, Zhong Zhang-cheng   

  • Published:1996-03-10
  • Contact: Liang Yin-li

Abstract: Based on the field experiment and the investigation on Mt. Jinyun, Sichuan, China, morphological responses and energy investment strategy of Pleioblastus maculata clone under the conditions of different water resource supply in microhabitat were analyzed. The results show as follows:1. Clonal P. maculata accumulated more biomass and produced less but larger ramets under higher levels of water resource supply. At different moisture conditions, spacer length and ramets size were variable, but internode length of rhizome was not significantly different at P= 0.05.2. The clonal growth of P. maculata seems to allow a foraging strategy that the clone produce longer rhizome with higher energy investment under lower levels of water resource supply in order to capture the resource and escape from a poor microhabitat. On the contrary, under higher levels of water resource supply, energy was mainly invested in growth of ramets.