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Interactive effects of soil nutrient heterogeneity and belowground herbivory on the growth of plants with different root foraging traits

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Abstract

Aims

Plants with precise root foraging patterns can proliferate roots preferentially in nutrient-rich soil patches. When nutrients are distributed heterogeneously, this trait is often competitively advantageous in pot experiments but not field experiments. We hypothesized that this difference is due to belowground herbivory under field conditions.

Methods

We performed pot experiments using seedlings of Lolium perenne (a more precise root foraging species) and Plantago lanceolata (a less precise root foraging species). The experiment had a two-way factorial randomized block design, with nutrient distribution pattern (homogeneous or heterogeneous) and belowground herbivore (present or absent) as the two factors. Each pot contained one seedling of each species.

Results

With no herbivore present, plant biomass was smaller in the heterogeneous nutrient treatment than in the homogeneous treatment in P. lanceolata, but not in L. perenne. Under homogeneous nutrient distribution, plant biomass was lower in both species with a herbivore present than with no herbivore. Under heterogeneous nutrient distribution, biomass reduction due to herbivory occurred only in L. perenne.

Conclusions

Roots of the precise root foraging species were grazed more under the heterogeneous nutrient distribution, suggesting that the herbivore more efficiently foraged for roots in nutrient-rich soil patches.

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Acknowledgments

We thank E. Sugiyama and T. Yasuki of Tokyo Metropolitan University for their help in the experiment. Prof. A. Nishiwaki made constructive comments on an earlier version of our manuscript. We are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their constructive comments on our manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minamiosawa, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397, Japan

    Tomonori Tsunoda, Naoki Kachi & Jun-Ichirou Suzuki

Authors
  1. Tomonori Tsunoda
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  2. Naoki Kachi
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  3. Jun-Ichirou Suzuki
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Correspondence to Tomonori Tsunoda.

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Responsible Editor: Jeffrey Walck.

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Tsunoda, T., Kachi, N. & Suzuki, JI. Interactive effects of soil nutrient heterogeneity and belowground herbivory on the growth of plants with different root foraging traits. Plant Soil 384, 327–334 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2215-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2215-5

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