IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i9p1663-d230731.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of Simulated Herbivory on the Vegetative Reproduction and Compensatory Growth of Hordeum brevisubulatum at Different Ontogenic Stages

Author

Listed:
  • Jihong Yuan

    (Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China)

  • Ping Wang

    (State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Vegetation Restoration, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China)

  • Yunfei Yang

    (Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Institute of Grassland Science, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China)

Abstract

The response of plant vegetative reproduction and compensatory growth to herbivory has been widely discussed in biological and ecological research. Most previous research has supported the idea that both vegetative reproduction and compensatory growth are affected by their ontogenic stage. However, in many studies, the effects of foraging at different ontogenic stages was often confounded with the effects of foraging at different phenological periods for perennials. Our experiment was conducted in a natural meadow with a perennial grass, Hordeum brevisubulatum, and four ontogenic stages were chosen as our experimental objects. Three different clipping intensities during three phenological periods were implemented to explore the effects of simulating animal foraging on vegetative reproduction and compensatory plant growth. The results indicated that there were significant effects of ontogenic stage, phenological period, and clipping intensity on vegetative reproduction and compensatory growth. Moderate clipping intensities significantly increased the number of vegetative tillers, the total number of juvenile tillers and buds, and the aboveground biomass at early phenological periods for individuals at early ontogenic stages. Our results suggested that moderate clipping intensities could induce only an over-compensation response in perennial grasses at both the early ontogenic stage and phenological period, and the ability of compensatory growth gradually decreased with the progression of the ontogenic stage. This is of great significance to the primary production of grasslands subjected to herbivory.

Suggested Citation

  • Jihong Yuan & Ping Wang & Yunfei Yang, 2019. "Effects of Simulated Herbivory on the Vegetative Reproduction and Compensatory Growth of Hordeum brevisubulatum at Different Ontogenic Stages," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-14, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1663-:d:230731
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1663/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1663/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1663-:d:230731. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.