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Gottlieb R, Gruntman M. Belowground plant competition: uncoupling root response strategies of peas. Proc Biol Sci 2024; 291:20240673. [PMID: 39079667 PMCID: PMC11288680 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/21/2024] [Indexed: 08/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Belowground plant competition has been shown to induce varying responses, from increases to decreases in root biomass allocation or in directional root placement. Such inconsistencies could result from the fact that root allocation and directional growth were seldom studied together, even though they might represent different strategies. Moreover, variations in belowground responses might be due to different size hierarchies between plants, but this hypothesis has not been studied previously. In a greenhouse rhizobox experiment, we examined the way both root allocation and directional root placement of Pisum sativum are affected by the size and density of Festuca glauca neighbours, and by nutrient distribution. We found that root allocation of P. sativum increased with the density and size of F. glauca. By contrast, directional root placement was unaffected by neighbour size and increased either towards or away from neighbours when nutrients were patchily or uniformly distributed, respectively. These results demonstrate that directional root placement under competition is contingent on the distribution of soil resources. Interestingly, our results suggest that root allocation and directional placement might be uncoupled strategies that simultaneously provide stress tolerance and spatial responsiveness to neighbours, thus highlighting the importance of measuring both when studying belowground plant competition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruth Gottlieb
- School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Michal Gruntman
- School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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Speißer B, van Kleunen M. Plants forage for soil patches free of plastic pollution but cannot bag the profits. Sci Rep 2023; 13:18506. [PMID: 37898611 PMCID: PMC10613303 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-45662-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2023] [Accepted: 10/22/2023] [Indexed: 10/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Microplastics can affect their surroundings physically and chemically, resulting in diverse effects on plant-soil systems. Similar to other substances (e.g. nutrients and water), microplastics in the environment occur in patches. Such heterogeneous distributions could affect plant responses to plastic pollution. Yet, this has remained untested. We conducted a multispecies experiment including 29 herbaceous plant species and three different microplastic treatments (a control without microplastics, a homogeneous and a heterogeneous microplastic distribution). Based on biomass and root-morphological traits, we assessed how different plastic distributions affect the performance and root-foraging behavior of plants, and whether stronger root foraging is beneficial when microplastics are distributed patchily. Next to general effects on plant productivity and root morphology, we found very strong evidence for root-foraging responses to patchy plastic distributions, with a clear preference for plastic-free patches, resulting in 25% longer roots and 20% more root biomass in the plastic-free patches. Interestingly, however, these foraging responses were correlated with a reduced plant performance, indicating that the benefits of plastic avoidance did not compensate for the associated investments. Our results provide new insights in plant-microplastic interactions and suggest that plants might not just be passively affected by but could also actively respond to environmental plastic pollution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benedikt Speißer
- Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78464, Constance, Germany.
| | - Mark van Kleunen
- Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78464, Constance, Germany
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, China
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Zhou J, Ma Z, Jia Y, Liu J, Yang Y, Li W, Cui L. Inferior plant competitor allocates more biomass to belowground as a result of greater competition for resources in heterogeneous habitats. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1184618. [PMID: 37794939 PMCID: PMC10546300 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1184618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
Nutrient heterogeneity in soil widely exists in nature and can have significant impacts on plant growth, biomass allocation, and competitive interactions. However, limited research has been done to investigate the interspecific competitive intensity between two clonal species in a heterogeneous habitat. Therefore, this greenhouse experiment was conducted with two clonal species, Phragmites australis and Scirpus planiculumis, exposed to heterogeneous and homogeneous patches of soil nutrients at five different planting ratios (0:4, 1:3, 2:2, 3:1 and 4:0), to assess the effects of both soil heterogeneity and interspecific competition on plant growth. It was found that soil nutrient heterogeneity significantly enhanced P. australis' interspecific competitive capacity and biomass by promoting a 20% increase in belowground allocation. Interestingly, the planting ratio did not affect the magnitude of this net outcome. In contrast, the superior competitor S. planiculumis did not exhibit significant change of growth indicators to the heterogeneous soil patches. These findings imply that the uncertainties associated with human-induced redistribution of plant species may lead to a shift in dominance from other species to those like P. australis, which have strong nutrient foraging abilities in response to heterogeneity in emergent wetland plant communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Zhou
- College of Bioscience and Resource Environment, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China
- Key laboratory of Urban Agriculture (North China), Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China
- Institute of Wetlands, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecological Function and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
| | - Ziwen Ma
- School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China
| | - Yuehui Jia
- College of Bioscience and Resource Environment, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China
- Key laboratory of Urban Agriculture (North China), Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China
| | - Jie Liu
- College of Bioscience and Resource Environment, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China
- Key laboratory of Urban Agriculture (North China), Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China
| | - Yuping Yang
- College of Bioscience and Resource Environment, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China
| | - Wei Li
- Institute of Wetlands, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecological Function and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
| | - Lijuan Cui
- Institute of Wetlands, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecological Function and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
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Huang L, Chen RY, Xue W, Yu FH. Effects of scale and contrast of spatial heterogeneity in plant-soil feedbacks on plant growth. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 878:163159. [PMID: 37003318 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2023] [Revised: 03/25/2023] [Accepted: 03/26/2023] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
Spatial heterogeneity in plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) has been evidenced to influence plant growth. However, it is unclear whether patch size and contrast of PSF heterogeneity influence plant growth. We first conditioned a background soil by seven species separately and then grew each of them in a homogeneous soil and three heterogeneous soils. The first heterogeneous soil (large patch and high contrast; LP-HC) consisted of two large patches, of which one was filled with the sterilized background soil and the other with the conditioned soil. The second heterogeneous soil (small patch and high contrast; SP-HC) consisted of four small patches, of which two were filled the sterilized background soil and the other two with the conditioned soil. The third heterogeneous soil (small patch and low contrast; SP-LC) also consisted of four patches, of which two were filled with a 1:3 (w:w) mixture and the other two with a 3:1 mixture of the sterilized background soil and the conditioned soil. In the homogeneous soil, all patches were filled with a 1:1 mixture of the two soils. Both shoot biomass and root biomass were equal in the homogeneous and heterogeneous soils. No significant growth difference was observed between the SP-HC and LP-HC heterogeneous soil. However, shoot biomass and root biomass of the legume Medicago sativa, and root biomass of the grass Lymus dahuricus were greater in the SP-HC heterogeneous soil than in the SP-LC heterogeneous soil, probably due to enhanced root growth in the conditioned soil. Moreover, plant growth in the heterogeneous soils was associated with plant growth but not soil nutrient availability at the end of the conditioning phase. Our results show for the first time that patch contrast of PSF heterogeneity can influence plant growth via changing root placement and highlight the importance of fundamentally different facets of PSF variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lin Huang
- Institute of Wetland Ecology & Clone Ecology, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China
| | - Rong-Yi Chen
- Institute of Wetland Ecology & Clone Ecology, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China
| | - Wei Xue
- Institute of Wetland Ecology & Clone Ecology, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China.
| | - Fei-Hai Yu
- Institute of Wetland Ecology & Clone Ecology, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China.
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