Plant Clonal Integration Mediates the Horizontal Redistribution of Soil Resources, Benefiting Neighboring Plants.

ABSTRACT: Resources such as water taken up by plants can be released into soils through hydraulic redistribution and can also be translocated by clonal integration within a plant clonal network. We hypothesized that the resources from one (donor) microsite could be translocated within a clonal network, released into different (recipient) microsites and subsequently used by neighbor plants in the recipient microsite. To test these hypotheses, we conducted two experiments in which connected and disconnected ramet pairs of Potentilla anserina were grown under both homogeneous and heterogeneous water regimes, with seedlings of Artemisia ordosica as neighbors. The isotopes [(15)N] and deuterium were used to trace the translocation of nitrogen and water, respectively, within the clonal network. The water

SUBMITTER: Ye XH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4742616 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature