Altitudinal variation in flowering area and position and their ecological significances of an alpine cushion Arenaria polytrichoides, a gynodioecious herb

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2020.0124

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims As foundation species in the alpine ecosystems, the reproduction and recruitment of alpine cushion plants are very important for sustaining the alpine ecosystem functions. However, it still remains unclear that how cushion plants effectively allocate resources to optimize reproductive fitness.
Methods Here we selected five populations of a gynodioecious herb Arenaria polytrichoides with different exposures and slopes along an altitudinal gradient on the Baima snow mountain in northwest Yunnan, southwest China, to investigate and compare flowering area and positions, within and among populations and between female and hermaphroditic morphs. By doing so, we further discuss how the environmental stresses affect the cushion’s flowering attributes thus the population-level reproduction.
Important findings The results showed that, individual plant size and resources allocated to flowering (flowering area %) both decreased with increasing elevation, indicating that the reproductive allocation strategy was significantly affected by elevation. However, a population at lower elevation showed lower reproductive investment than higher populations, suggesting that elevation was not the only factor affecting the cushion’s reproductive allocation. In addition, absolute flowering area increased with increasing individual size, but the flowering area ratio decreased, indicating that the increases in reproductive allocation are fewer than that in vegetative allocation. Hermaphroditic individuals invested more resources to flowering than females did, but again, such effect was affected by elevation. Moreover, within a single population, the flowering areas were significantly different among the four directions (east, south, west and north) within one single individual canopy, but such differences varied in different populations.

Key words: alpine plant, flowering area, reproductive allocation, resource limitation

ZHANG Ya-Zhou, WANG Song-Wei, HE Xiao-Fang, YANG Yang, CHEN Jian-Guo, SUN Hang. Altitudinal variation in flowering area and position and their ecological significances of an alpine cushion Arenaria polytrichoides, a gynodioecious herb[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2020, 44(11): 1154-1163.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2020.0124

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2020/V44/I11/1154

Figures/Tables 7

Fig. 1 Study area and materials. A, Arenaria polytrichoides and flowering aspect of one individual. B, Field investigation protocol. C, Structure of the cushion plant. D, Study area and community landscape.

Table 1 Geographical information of the studied populations, habitat type and number of individuals investigated in each population of Arenaria polytrichoides

种群编号 Population ID	生境类型 Habitat type	海拔 Altitude (m)	地理坐标 Coordinate	坡向 Aspect	坡度 Slope (°)	调查个体数 Individual number
1	草甸 Meadow	4 360	28.45° N, 99.00° E	西 West	15	98 (41)
2	草甸 Meadow	4 450	28.45° N, 99.00° E	西 West	45	90 (36)
3	草甸 Meadow	4 520	28.46° N, 99.00° E	东南 SE	40	100 (56)
4	草甸-流石滩交错带 Meadow-screes ecotone	4 720	28.48° N, 99.00° E	东南 SE	40	100 (51)
5	流石滩 Screes	4 920	28.48° N, 99.01° E	山顶 Peak	0	100 (47)

Fig. 2 Comparison of ratios of flowering area among populations (A) and between different gender morphs (B) of Arenaria polytrichoides in the study area (mean ± SE). Different lowercase letters indicate significant difference (p ≤ 0.05).

Fig. 3 Relationship between plant size and the total flowering area and the relevant ratio of flowering area of Arenaria polytrichoides. A, B, All populations. C, D, Population 1. E, F, Population 2. G, H, Population 3. I, J, Population 4. K, L, Population 5. Regression line: ordinary least squares linear regression lines; coef, regression coefficient. All data are normalized to between 0 and 1. Significant relationship: *, p ≤ 0.05; **, p ≤ 0.01; ***, p ≤ 0.001.

Table 2 Results of mixed effect models and selecting models of cushion flowering area and the explainary variables

	模型系数 Value	标准误差 SE	z	p	w	AICc
截距 Intercept	1.919 1	0.186 3	10.300 0	<0.001	-
海拔 Altitude	-0.000 3	0.000 0	-8.020 0	<0.001	1	-401.4
性别 Gender	0.035 4	0.014 4	2.460 0	0.014	0.88
植株大小 Plant size	-0.001 2	0.000 2	-5.210 0	<0.001	1

Fig. 4 Ratio of flowering area (mean ± SE) of different gender morphs in the five studied populations of Arenaria polytrichoides. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences (p ≤ 0.05).

Fig. 5 Comparison of ratios of flowering areas (mean ± SE) in different aspects within populations of Arenaria polytrichoides. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences (p ≤ 0.05).

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