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Dynamic reproductive plasticity in response to emergence time and population density in Abutilon theophrasti (Malvaceae)

  • Reproductive Biology - Original Article
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Abstract

Emergence time and population density both have important influences on plants, but their interactive effects have not been well understood, especially on plant reproduction in dynamic patterns. A field experiment was conducted by subjecting plants of Abutilon theophrasti Medicus (Malvaceae) to four treatments of sowing dates (emergence periods, ET1–ET4) and three treatments of (low, medium and high) planting density, and population reproductive traits such as the number of reproductive individuals in total and of different reproductive ranks (RR) were observed, and mean values and among-individual variation in these traits were calculated. Results showed that either an advance or delay of emergence can increase the percentage of flowering or fruiting individuals of the populations. Compared to low density, high density reduced the percentage of flowering individuals and the number of fruits per individual at day 110, with little effect on the percentage of fruiting individuals, whereas medium density promoted the reproduction, for populations of ET1. Density effects were only significant for the plants that emerged early, and increased density reduced the responses of plants to emergence time. The results revealed the strategies of A. theophrasti in dealing with complex biotic environmental changes at the population level: advanced or delayed emergence can result in shortened vegetative growth and earlier reproduction, whereas increased density tended to decrease the percentage of flowering individuals while maintaining that of fruiting ones stable and effects density depend on the strength of inter-plant interactions.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the reviewers and editors who all provided useful feedback on this manuscript.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 31800335, 32171511), Guizhou Province Science and Technology Department (2019-1089) and Guizhou University Talent Introduction Research Program (2017-39) to SW.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Forestry, Forest Ecology Research Center, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Shu Wang

  2. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China

    Dao-Wei Zhou

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  1. Shu Wang
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  2. Dao-Wei Zhou
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Contributions

SW and D-WZ conceived and designed the experiment. SW carried out the experiments, analyzed the data, prepared the figures and tables and wrote and reviewed the drafts of the paper. Both authors approved the final draft.

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Correspondence to Shu Wang.

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Wang, S., Zhou, DW. Dynamic reproductive plasticity in response to emergence time and population density in Abutilon theophrasti (Malvaceae). Braz. J. Bot 45, 1057–1066 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-022-00814-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-022-00814-3

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