Ecological responses of Primula nutans to centimeter-scale topographic and environmental variability in an alpine wetland

Primula nutans Georgi is a herbaceous species broadly distributed in wetlands on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. These wetlands are often spatially highly heterogeneous because of their hummock-and-hollow microtopography. To address how P. nutans can be so broadly distributed on these wetlands, we examined ramet distribution, abundance, and growth performance in environmentally variable microsites at the centimeter scale. P. nutans showed significantly higher ramet density on the south-orientated microsites than on the north-orientated microsites. With increasing relative microsite elevation on the hummocks, ramet density increased significantly, but individual leaf area decreased significantly. Principle component analysis and multiple regression analysis indicated that microsites at higher elevations tend to have higher light availability and higher ramet density. The study suggests that P. nutans shows high plasticity in the distribution, abundance, and growth performance in response to the microtopography at the centimeter scale, which may contribute to the broad distribution of the species in the hummock-and-hollow wetlands in harsh alpine environments on the Tibetan Plateau.