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Evidence of Phenotypic Plasticity in the Response of Fagopyrum esculentum to Population Density and Sowing Date

Journal of Plant Biology volume 52, pages 303–311 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Phenotypic plasticity is an important attribute that enables plants to survive across a range of environments. We conducted two experiments to investigate the plasticity of architectural traits and biomass ratios for Fagopyrum esculentum Moench in response to population density and sowing date. These included (1) inter-planting distances of 5, 10, 15, or 20 cm; and (2) sowing on 25 July, 1 August, 5 August, or 10 August. Many traits exhibited phenotypic plasticity that was coupled with changes in plant size. However, variations in leaf/mass ratio from either experiment, as well as leaf/root ratios in response to sowing date, were independent of size. When coefficients of variation were computed, some consistency was found in the magnitude of trait plasticity for both density and sowing date. For each experiment, leaf/root ratios, leaf/mass ratios, and stem/mass ratios were most plastic. Although this suggests that biomass ratios could be more responsive to environmental changes, a wide array of traits should be considered if we are to fully understand the mechanism for these phenomena.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Zhang Boatian and the other staff at the research station for managing these experiments. This manuscript benefited from discussions with Jacob Weiner and Cory Mathew. We thank Colleen Cassady St. Clair for helping with the language and Daffay Mamudu for assistance with the statistical analysis. Input from Josphert Kimatu and Yiying Zheng is also acknowledged. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Financial support was given by the National Key Basic Research Development Program, Grant no. 2007CB106801.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Grassland Science, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin Province, 130024, People’s Republic of China

    Wisdom Japhet, Hongxuan Zhang, Hongxiang Zhang & Tian Yu

  2. Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Changchun, Jilin Province, 130024, People’s Republic of China

    Wisdom Japhet, Hongxuan Zhang, Hongxiang Zhang & Tian Yu

  3. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130012, China

    Daowei Zhou

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  1. Wisdom Japhet
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  2. Daowei Zhou
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  3. Hongxuan Zhang
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  4. Hongxiang Zhang
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  5. Tian Yu
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Correspondence to Daowei Zhou.

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Japhet, W., Zhou, D., Zhang, H. et al. Evidence of Phenotypic Plasticity in the Response of Fagopyrum esculentum to Population Density and Sowing Date. J. Plant Biol. 52, 303–311 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-009-9037-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-009-9037-7

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