Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1002/ece3.11430
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Effects of species diversity on trait expression of the clonal herb Taraxacum officinale and its relation to genotype diversity and phenotypic plasticity
Author De Giorgi, F.; Roscher, C.; Durka, W. ORCID logo
Source Titel Ecology and Evolution
Year 2024
Department BZF; PHYDIV
Volume 14
Issue 5
Page From e11430
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.25829/BN3X-TX39
https://doi.org/10.25829/T11X-MH23
Supplements https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1002%2Fece3.11430&file=ece311430-sup-0001-Supinfo.docx
Keywords apomixis; biodiversity; clonality; functional traits; genetic diversity; intraspecific trait variation; phenotypic plasticity
Abstract Plant species respond to varying plant species diversity and associated changes in their abiotic and biotic environment with changes in their phenotype. However, it is not clear to what degree this phenotypic differentiation is due to genotype diversity within populations or phenotypic plasticity of plant individuals. We studied individuals of 16 populations of the clonal herb Taraxacum officinale grown in plant communities of different species richness in a 17-year-old grassland biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment). We collected 12 individuals in each population to measure phenotypic traits and identify distinct genotypes using microsatellite DNA markers. Plant species richness did not influence population-level genotype and trait diversity. However, it affected the expression of several phenotypic traits, e.g. leaf and inflorescence number, maximum leaf length and seed mass, which increased with increasing plant species richness. Moreover, population-level trait diversity correlated positively with genotype richness for leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and negatively with inflorescence number. For several traits (i.e. seed mass, germination rate, LDMC, specific leaf area (SLA)), a larger portion of variance was explained by genotype identity, while variance in other traits (i.e. number of inflorescences, leaf nitrogen concentration, leaf number, leaf length) resided within genotypes and thus was mostly due to phenotypic plasticity. Overall, our findings show that plant species richness positively affected the population means of some traits related to whole-plant performance, whose variation was achieved through both phenotypic plasticity and genotype composition of a population.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=29137
De Giorgi, F., Roscher, C., Durka, W. (2024):
Effects of species diversity on trait expression of the clonal herb Taraxacum officinale and its relation to genotype diversity and phenotypic plasticity
Ecol. Evol. 14 (5), e11430 10.1002/ece3.11430