Wednesday, August 8, 2007PS 49-130: Individual strategies of growth on invasive and native prairie species on different nutrients environments
Estela M. Quintero-Vallejo and Maria N. Miriti. The Ohio State Univesrsity
Prairie restoration requires the understanding of mechanisms that allow native species to cope with enriched soils. Biomass allocation might differ between native and invasive prairie species since native species are adapted to nutrient poor soils. We investigated allocation to roots, shoots and leaves of invasive and native prairie forbs: Solidago rigida, Asclepias sullivantii, Solidago canadensis, and Asclepias syriaca to measure responses to nitrogen and calcium. In a greenhouse study we grew 400 plants at four combinations of these nutrients (HN HCa , HN LCa, LN Hca, LN Lca) for seven weeks. Each week, we harvested five plants per treatment and we determined height, leaf area, and dry biomass of roots, shoots, and leaves. High nitrogen significantly increased plant size, root and shoot biomass for all species (size: p<0.001; roots: p<0.001; shoots: p<0.001). Root:shoot ratio was also sensitive to nitrogen level (p<0.001 for all species) with increased allocation to roots when nitrogen was low. This ratio remained constant over all harvests for invasive species, but not natives, suggesting plasticity for this trait for invasives. With the exception of A. sullivantii, specific leaf area (SLA) did not respond to nutrient treatments; A. sullivantii
See more of PS 49 - Phenotypic plasticity
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See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)
See more of Contributed Oral and Poster Abstracts
See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)