Hutchings, Michael J and Wijesinghe, Dushyantha K (2008) Performance of a clonal species in patchy environments: effects of environmental context on yield at local and whole-plant scales. Evolutionary Ecology, 22 (3). pp. 313-324. ISSN 1573-8477

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Abstract

Yield of the clonal plant Glechoma hederacea was compared at different spatial scales, in heterogeneous and homogeneous environments providing the same amount of nutrients. For the heterogeneous treatments, environments were created with different patch sizes and different degrees of contrast in nutrient concentration between patches of different quality. Total clone yield differed by almost 2.5-fold across treatments, being highest in environments with large patches and high contrast, lowest in environments with small patches and high contrast, and intermediate under homogeneous conditions. Compared with plants in homogeneous conditions, there were significant increases or decreases in yield at all scales of measurement in many of the heterogeneous treatments. These effects on yield reflected a combination of local responses to growing conditions and modification of these responses due to physiological integration with other parts of the plant growing in contrasting conditions, supporting the proposal of de Kroon et al. (2005 New Phytol 166:73¿82). The results show that plant yield at all scales is strongly dependent on environmental context, and that maximum yield can only be realized under a limited range of heterogeneous conditions.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Life Sciences > Biology and Environmental Science
Depositing User:	Michael Hutchings
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 20:44
Last Modified:	22 Mar 2012 08:44
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/27835

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