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Integration in the clonal plant Eriophorum angustifolium: an experiment with a three-member-clonal system in a patchy environment

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Abstract

A clonal plant in heterogeneous environments is usually expected to profit from resource exchange via a clonal network where ramets placed in contrasting environments can specialise so to acquire the most abundant resources. An experiment was designed using the three member clonal system of Eriophorum angustifolium, which consisted of one parent ramet growing in a resource poor environment and two offspring: one was limited in growth by nutrients while the other was light limited; the contrast in availability of limited resources between the offspring ramets was high, medium or none, with the system either connected or severed. The total resource availability was the same in all treatments. We proposed four possible scenarios for the system: offspring ramets will share resources via the deficient parent ramet, and the whole clone will profit from the contrasting environment (scenario 1); offspring ramets will support exclusively the parent ramet, and the whole clone will profit from a homogeneous environment (scenario 2); offspring ramets will stop the export of the limiting resource to the parent ramet, with split and connected treatments not differing (scenario 3); and offspring ramets will exhaust the carbon stored in the biomass of the parental ramet; offspring ramet will profit from connection (scenario 4). In the experiment, the limiting resources were sent to the strongest sink (scenario 2). The parent ramet growing in a deficient environment received the highest support in the treatment where both offspring ramets were growing in the same conditions (no-contrast treatment). Production of new shoots, but not biomass of whole clone, was supported in a homogenous environment. The experiment revealed that multiple stresses might prohibit free exchange of limiting resources via the clonal network and supports the idea that experimental studies on more complex clones are essential for understanding the costs and benefits of clonal growth.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jiří Doležal, Leoš Klimeš and Jan Š. Lepš for helpful comments on the manuscript and to Keith Edwards for linguistic correction. This research was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GA526/06/0723) and by research project of Institute of Botany AS CR (AV0Z60050516).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Botany, Section of Plant Ecology, Dukelská 135, Třeboň, CZ-379 82, Czech Republic

    Štěpán Janeček & Jitka Klimešová

  2. Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, České Budějovice, CZ-370 05, Czech Republic

    Jana Kantorová & Michael Bartoš

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  1. Štěpán Janeček
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  2. Jana Kantorová
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  3. Michael Bartoš
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  4. Jitka Klimešová
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Correspondence to Štěpán Janeček.

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Janeček, Š., Kantorová, J., Bartoš, M. et al. Integration in the clonal plant Eriophorum angustifolium: an experiment with a three-member-clonal system in a patchy environment. Evol Ecol 22, 325–336 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-007-9203-7

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