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Phenotypic responses of Spartina anglica to duration of tidal immersion

  • Original Article
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Ecological Research

Abstract

Although Spartina anglica C.E. Hubbard continues to be invasive in many countries, this species has experienced a drastic decline in coastal China over the last decade. We hypothesize that changes in the duration of tidal immersion were responsible for this decline because the elevation of the S. anglica-dominated area in coastal China has increased greatly over the last decade. We examined the effects of the duration of simulated tidal immersion and plant material provenance on growth, asexual reproduction, biomass accumulation, and allocation (percent of above-ground biomass to total biomass) of S. anglica in a greenhouse experiment. The provenance of S. anglica did not significantly affect any traits measured except for height, stalk diameter, and leaf area. However, all traits were affected by the duration of immersion. Plants grown under 6 h of immersion were taller and had more leaves, more roots, and larger leaf area than those under 2, 4, 8, and 10 h of immersion. Asexual traits and biomass of the plants grown under 6 h of immersion were significantly larger than those under other immersion durations. The results suggested that S. anglica benefits from tidal immersion and decreasing duration of tidal immersion may have resulted in the decline of the S. anglica populations in coastal China. Thus, controlling the duration of tidal immersion may be an effective way of controlling invasiveness of this species elsewhere in the world.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Guoyong Sun, Shicheng Lü, Jinjin Du, and Hui Wang for help with the field investigation, and Dr. Fei-Hai Yu and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (YX2010-3), the Forestry Commonwealth Research Special Foundation of State Forestry Administration (200804005) and Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation (BK2007152).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Hongli Li, Guangchun Lei & Peter Bridgewater

  2. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Hongli Li, Yingbiao Zhi, Lei Zhao, Yu Wang, Zifa Deng, Fude Liu & Shuqing An

  3. Institute of Wetland Ecology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Shuqing An

  4. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research for Sustainable Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, 264003, China

    Yuhong Liu

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  1. Hongli Li
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  2. Guangchun Lei
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Correspondence to Shuqing An.

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Li, H., Lei, G., Zhi, Y. et al. Phenotypic responses of Spartina anglica to duration of tidal immersion. Ecol Res 26, 395–402 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-010-0794-z

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