Abstract
A sod transplantation experiment was carried out for 24 years in alpine communities of Teberda Reserve in the northwest Caucasus of Russia. The age of maturity (AOM) was estimated as the period between the first registration of a species on a permanent plot and the flowering shoot appearance. The mean species AOM varied from 2.3 years (Antennaria dioica with clonal propagation) to 13.7 years for Taraxacum stevenii (nonclonal plant). The general gradient of alpine plant traits and population strategies was determined. It represents a continuum ranging from ruderal–stress-tolerators (shorter AOM, clonality, shorter leaf life span, low rate of mycorrhizal infection, low regrowth ability, low generative shoot number, low specific leaf area and leaf nitrogen content) to competitor–stress-tolerators (longer AOM, longer leaf life span, higher rate of mycorrhizal infection, higher regrowth ability, high generative shoot number, high specific leaf area and leaf nitrogen content).
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Original Russian Text © A.M. Kipkeev, V.G. Onipchenko, D.K. Tekeev, M.A. Erkenova, F.S. Salpagarova, 2014, published in Zhurnal Obshchei Biologii, 2014, Vol. 75, No. 4, pp. 315–323.
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Kipkeev, A.M., Onipchenko, V.G., Tekeev, D.K. et al. Age of maturity in alpine herbaceous perennials in the northwest Caucasus. Biol Bull Rev 5, 505–511 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079086415050035
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079086415050035