Facilitation and competition interact with seed dormancy to affect population dynamics in annual plants

Seed dormancy increases population size via bet-hedging and by limiting negative interactions (e.g., competition) among individuals. On the other hand, individuals also interact positively (e.g., facilitation), and in some systems, facilitation among juveniles precedes competition among adults in the same generation. Nevertheless, studies of the benefits of seed dormancy typically ignore facilitation. Using a population growth model, we ask how the facilitation–competition balance interacts with seed dormancy rate to affect population dynamics in constant and variable environments. Facilitation increases the growth rate and equilibrium size (in both constant and variable environments) and reduces the extinction rate of populations (in a variable environment), and a higher rate of seed dormancy allows populations with facilitation to reach larger sizes. However, the combined benefits of facilitation and a high dormancy rate only occur in large populations. In small populations, weak facilitation does not affect the growth rate, but does induce a weak demographic Allee effect (where population growth decreases with decreasing population size). Our results suggest that facilitation within populations can interact with bet-hedging traits (such as dormancy) or other traits that mediate density to affect population dynamics. Further, by ensuring survival but limiting reproduction, ontogenetic switches from facilitation to competition may enable populations to persist but limit their maximum size in variable environments. Such intrinsic regulation of populations could then contribute to the maintenance of similar species within communities.     

入侵杂草一年蓬的化感作用研究

用入侵杂草一年蓬(Erigeron annuus)地上部分的水浸提液对几种经济作物种子进行萌发培养实验,分别测定种子的最终萌发率、根长以及苗高来研究一年蓬是否存在他感作用。结果表明:(1)一年蓬的化感作用是存在的;(2)一年蓬水浸提液在高浓度下对作物种子萌发、根长和苗高均有明显的抑制作用,而在低浓度下则对长梗白菜、番茄的苗高具有促进生长的作用。     

Effects of nitrogen amendment on annual plants in the Chihuahuan Desert

Effects of nitrogen amendments on spring annual plant distribution, primary production, and species diversity in a semi-arid environment were studied. The ecological responses of spring annual plant species to nitrogen differed between species, and between sites. The distribution of each species in a control transect was wider than in a nitrogen-treated transect. Annual plant species diversity at each station in the control transect was higher than that of the nitrogen-treated transect. The lower site of the Lower Basin Slope areas had the highest species diversity (0.94 for the control and 0.84 for the nitrogen-treated), and the Upper Basin Slope area, shrub vegetation zone, had the lowest species diversity (0.27 for the control and 0.05 for the nitrogen-treated) in both transects. Inorganic nitrogen in the nitrogen-treated transect soils was consistently higher than that in the control transect soils; however, the former showed more fluctuation from station to station than the latter. Above-ground biomass of spring annual plants in the nitrogen-treated transect was consistently higher than that in the control at each station. The maximum above-ground biomass in the control and nitrogen-treated transect was 24.4±4.4 gm⁻² and 61.2±10.6 gm⁻², respectively. Variations in above-ground biomass along the transect did not parallel with the variation in inorganic nitrogen in soils and species diversity.     

A population dynamics model for annual plants subject to inbreeding depression

Summary We present a population dynamics model for annual plants subject to density dependent competition and a decline in mean individual fitness with inbreeding. An analysis of this model provides three distinct sets of parameter values that define the relative influence of inbreeding depression and density on population growth. First, a population with a relatively high finite rate of increase and a relatively small environmental carrying capacity can persist in spite of low levels of inbreeding depression. These types of population may occur during a bottleneck event that is caused by pure predation (or collecting) pressure rather than loss of habitat. Second, there can exist a minimum viable population size when the finite rate of increase is relatively low and the population is also affected by density: the growth or decline of the population will depend on the initial population size. Third, when the population is small enough to be simultaneously effected by density and by inbreeding depression, there can be no viable population.     

Spatial variations in aboveground net primary productivity along a climate gradient in Eurasian temperate grassland: effects of mean annual precipitation and its seasonal distribution

Concomitant changes of annual precipitation and its seasonal distribution within the context of global climate change have dramatic impacts on aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) of grassland ecosystems. In this study, combining remote sensing products with in situ measurements of ANPP, we quantified the effects of mean annual precipitation (MAP) and precipitation seasonal distribution (PSD) on the spatial variations in ANPP along a climate gradient in Eurasian temperate grassland. Our results indicated that ANPP increased exponentially with MAP for the entire temperate grassland, but linearly for a specific grassland type, i.e. the desert steppe, typical steppe, and meadow steppe from arid to humid regions. The slope of the linear relationship appeared to be steeper in the more humid meadow steppe than that in the drier typical and desert steppes. PSD also had significant effect on the spatial variations in ANPP. It explained 39.4% of the spatial ANPP for the entire grassland investigated, being comparable with the explanatory power of MAP (40.0%). On the other hand, the relative contribution of PSD and MAP is grassland type specific. MAP exhibited a much stronger explanatory power than PSD for the desert steppe and the meadow steppe at the dry and wet end, respectively. However, PSD was the dominant factor affecting the spatial variation in ANPP for the median typical steppe. Our results imply that altered pattern of PSD due to climate change may be as important as the total amount in terms of effects on ANPP in Eurasian temperate grassland.     

降水年内分配不均匀性指标

径流量及其分配过程依赖于降雨特征,它关系到水利设施规模和水资源合理配置。本文借鉴水文界经验,应用降雨集中度、降雨不均匀系数和调节系数概念,并对后2个系数进行修订,使其值域介于0～1。利用中原地区有代表性的4个气象台站1951—2005年的日降雨资料,计算并分析比较了降雨集中度、降雨不均匀系数和调节系数在河南省的适用性。结果表明:降水集中度、降水不均匀系数和调节系数从不同侧面反映了降水量的年内分布特征。3个指标具有一定的可比性,但数值上用同样资料计算的调节系数都要大于不均匀系数;4站候、旬和月的降水不均匀系数有相同的分布规律,随着时段的延长,不均匀系数增大,其变幅也增大,而调节系数则不同,随着时段的延长,降水调节系数减小,而相应的变幅则增大;分别采用候、旬和月的降水资料计算的降水集中度、不均匀系数和调节系数之间具有很好的一致性,最小的相关系数为0.60(P<0.001),说明3个指标间可互为代替;采用候、旬和月计算的降水集中度两两之间呈显著相关,相关系数为0.98;候、旬和月不均匀系数之间的相关系数为0.75;候、旬和月的调节系数之间的相关系数与不均匀系数相当。表明这3个指标在不同时间尺度间具有明显的一致性,在河南区域只应用月降水量就能反应降水的不均匀性。     

模拟氮沉降和干旱对准噶尔盆地两种一年生荒漠植物生长和光合生理的影响

氮素和水分是荒漠生态系统的两个主要限制因子, 研究两者对荒漠植物的效应有助于深入了解荒漠生态系统对全球变化的响应。该文选择准噶尔盆地荒漠地区两种常见的一年生植物涩荠(Malcolmia africana)和钩刺雾冰藜(Bassia hyssopifolia), 设置0、0.18和0.72 g N·m ^-2·week ^-13个施氮浓度和湿润与干旱两个土壤水分处理, 研究模拟氮沉降增加和干旱对其生长和光合生理的影响。结果表明: (1)两种植物的根长、根重、叶片数、叶面积、总生物量和冠根比均随着施氮浓度的增加而增加, 干旱能够抑制氮对植物生长的促进作用, 但是, 氮的增加同时也能部分缓解干旱对植物生长的影响。与钩刺雾冰藜相比, 涩荠的根长、生物量和冠根比更易受氮增加和干旱的影响。(2)两种植物的最大净光合速率、叶绿素含量、可溶性蛋白含量随着氮浓度增加而增加, 但涩荠和钩刺雾冰藜对氮增加和干旱的生理响应也有所不同, 涩荠的响应更加敏感。两种植物对氮沉降和干旱胁迫响应的差异可能是其生活型等生物学特性差异所引起。通过对两种一年生植物的生长和光合生理分析表明, 在古尔班通古特沙漠, 春季丰富的降水和氮素增加将有利于涩荠和钩刺雾冰藜的生长和生产力的增加, 相对地下生长, 地上部分增加更显著。当干旱季节来临时, 氮的增加又能够在一定程度上降低干旱对这两种植物的负效应, 说明其对干旱具有一定的生态补偿作用。     

河北省年均降水量插值方法比较

以河北省及临近区域120个气象观测站点1971～2000年均降水量数据为基础,选择其中的40个作为检验站点,其余站点分别取80、40、20个作为插值站点,采用局部插值、整体插值、多元线性回归、综合模拟等多种插值模型讨论了降水空间插值问题,主要结论如下:插值站点数、模型类型、模型参数都会影响插值精度.局部插值模型相对误差最小值出现在Spline、IDW模型中,其次为Kridging模型,而整体模型Trend、多元线性回归模型误差均较大,但综合了局部插值模型和统计模型的综合模型一定程度上能改善插值精度及误差分布.河北省80和40个站点的最优插值模型为综合模型,20个站点的最优插值模型为IDW2.     

Annual plants in arid and semi-arid desert regions

Annual plants are the main vegetation in arid and semi-arid desert regions. Because of their unique traits, they are the optimal experimental subjects for ecological studies. In this article, we summarize annual plants’ seed germination strategies, seedling adaptability mechanism to environments, seed dispersal, and soil seed banks. We also discuss the biotic and abiotic factors affecting the composition and dynamics of annual plant populations and communities. Because annual plants have important ecological functions in desert vegetation systems, this study on annual plants will be of great benefit to the conservation and restoration of desert ecosystems, the rational utilization of resources, and the sustainable development of desert regions. __________ Translated from Chinese Journal of Ecology, 2006, 25(7): 851–856 [译自: 生态学杂志]     

Complex terrain leads to bidirectional responses of soil respiration to inter‐annual water availability

Research on the terrestrial C balance focuses largely on measuring and predicting responses of ecosystem‐scale production and respiration to changing temperatures and hydrologic regimes. However, landscape morphology can modify the availability of resources from year to year by imposing physical gradients that redistribute soil water and other biophysical variables within ecosystems. This article demonstrates that the well‐established biophysical relationship between soil respiration and soil moisture interacts with topographic structure to create bidirectional (i.e., opposite) responses of soil respiration to inter‐annual soil water availability within the landscape. Based on soil respiration measurements taken at a subalpine forest in central Montana, we found that locations with high drainage areas (i.e., lowlands and wet areas of the forest) had higher cumulative soil respiration in dry years, whereas locations with low drainage areas (i.e., uplands and dry areas of the forest) had higher cumulative soil respiration in wet years. Our results indicate that for 80.9% of the forest soil respiration is likely to increase during wet years, whereas for 19.1% of the forest soil respiration is likely to decrease under the same hydrologic conditions. This emergent, bidirectional behavior is generated from the interaction of three relatively simple elements (parabolic soil biophysics, the relative distribution of landscape positions, and inter‐annual climate variability), indicating that terrain complexity is an important mediator of the landscape‐scale soil C response to climate. These results highlight that evaluating and predicting ecosystem‐scale soil C response to climate fluctuation requires detailed characterization of biophysical‐topographic interactions in addition to biophysical‐climate interactions.     

模拟水淹对三峡库区常见一年生草本植物种子萌发的影响

根据三峡水库水位运行时间, 设计了30、75、115、155、195和240天共6个水淹时间梯度(T-1、T-2、T-3、T-4、T-5和T-6), 采用模拟水淹的方法, 研究了不同水淹时间对三峡消落带4种常见的一年生草本植物稗(Echinochloa crusgali)、金狗尾草(Setaria pumila)、马唐(Digitaria sanguinalis)和荩草(Arthraxon hispidus)种子萌发的影响。结果表明: 1)随着水淹处理时间的增长, 这4种植物的萌发率基本上呈现先增高后降低的趋势。稗和荩草在T-1-T-5的种子萌发率显著高于对照(CK) (p < 0.05), T-6和CK之间差异不显著。金狗尾草T-2、T-3的萌发率显著高于CK (p < 0.05), T-1、T-4-T-6与CK之间无显著性差异。马唐在水淹处理(T-1-T-6)的萌发率均显著高于对照(CK), 但长时间水淹处理(T-4-T-6)对萌发的促进作用要低于短时间水淹处理(T-1-T-3)。这说明一定时间的水淹有利于打破种子休眠并提高种子萌发率。2)一定时间的水淹处理加快了稗、金狗尾草、马唐和荩草的萌发进程。对照组种子的日萌发率较均匀, 萌发曲线较平缓。而水淹处理的种子多集中在3-5天内大量萌发。和对照相比, 一定时间的水淹处理显著提高了这4种植物种子的萌发指数, 缩短了种子的萌发持续时间, 提早了种子萌发高峰时间和达到50%萌发率的时间。长时间的水淹对种子的萌发进程影响不大。3)总体来说, 稗、金狗尾草、马唐和荩草在各个处理下的萌发率均较高(> 40%), 可以考虑作为三峡消落带植被恢复的备选物种。     

北疆一年生早春短命植物物种丰富度分布格局及其影响因素

理解植物多样性变化的影响因素一直是群落生态学和生物地理学研究的重要内容。大量研究显示, 植物多样性受到海拔、古气候、现代气候、土壤养分和地上生物量等一系列因素的影响。然而, 很少有研究综合考虑这些因素对植物多样性的影响和相对重要性。本研究以北疆一年生早春短命植物为研究对象, 以2017年和2018年对32个样地调查的物种丰富度为基础, 通过一般线性模型和偏最小二乘通径模型分析了海拔、气候因素(年平均温度、冬季降水、2‒5月降水以及末次冰期以来2‒5月降水变化距平)、土壤养分(pH、土壤有机碳、全氮、全磷、碳氮比、碳磷比和氮磷比)和地上生物量与该类植物物种丰富度平均值的关系及其相对重要性。结果显示: (1)一年生早春短命植物物种丰富度与海拔、年均温度、2‒5月降水、末次冰期以来2‒5月降水变化距平、土壤pH、土壤碳氮比和地上生物量均呈现显著的单峰型关系, 而与冬季降水之间表现为先降低后增加的变化趋势, 表明该类植物多样性同时受到多种因素的影响; (2)海拔、气候因素和土壤养分不仅对该类植物物种丰富度存在显著的直接影响, 也可通过改变地上生物量进而对其物种丰富度产生间接影响; (3)这些因素中, 气候因素是影响一年生早春短命植物物种丰富度的最主要影响因素, 其次分别为地上生物量、海拔和土壤养分。海拔、土壤养分、气候因素及地上生物量共同驱动了北疆地区一年生早春短命植物丰富度的变化。     

Experimental simulations about the effects of overexploitation and habitat fragmentation on populations facing environmental warming

Populations of many species are dramatically declining worldwide, but the causal mechanism remains debated among different human-related threats. Coping with this uncertainty is critical to several issues about the conservation and future of biodiversity, but remains challenging due to difficulties associated with the experimental manipulation and/or isolation of the effects of such threats under field conditions. Using controlled microcosm populations, we quantified the individual and combined effects of environmental warming, overexploitation and habitat fragmentation on population persistence. Individually, each of these threats produced similar and significant population declines, which were accelerated to different degrees depending upon particular interactions. The interaction between habitat fragmentation and harvesting generated an additive decline in population size. However, both of these threats reduced population resistance causing synergistic declines in populations also facing environmental warming. Declines in population size were up to 50 times faster when all threats acted together. These results indicate that species may be facing risks of extinction higher than those anticipated from single threat analyses and suggest that all threats should be mitigated simultaneously, if current biodiversity declines are to be reversed.     

Common alien plants are more competitive than rare natives but not than common natives

Success of alien plants is often attributed to high competitive ability. However, not all aliens become dominant, and not all natives are vulnerable to competitive exclusion. Here, we quantified competitive outcomes and their determinants, using response‐surface experiments, in 48 pairs of native and naturalised alien annuals that are common or rare in Germany. Overall, aliens were not more competitive than natives. However, common aliens (invasive) were, despite strong limitation by intraspecific competition, more competitive than rare natives. This is because alien species had higher intrinsic growth rates than natives, and common species had higher intrinsic growth rates than rare ones. Strength of interspecific competition was not related to status or commonness. Our work highlights the importance of including commonness in understanding invasion success. It suggests that variation among species in intrinsic growth rates is more important in competitive outcomes than inter‐ or intraspecific competition, and thus contributes to invasion success and rarity.     

Contemporary climate change in the Sonoran Desert favors cold‐adapted species

Impacts of long‐term climate shifts on the dynamics of intact communities within species ranges are not well understood. Here, we show that warming and drying of the Southwestern United States over the last 25 years has corresponded to a shift in the species composition of Sonoran Desert winter annuals, paradoxically favoring species that germinate and grow best in cold temperatures. Winter rains have been arriving later in the season, during December rather than October, leading to the unexpected result that plants are germinating under colder temperatures, shifting community composition to favor slow growing, water‐use efficient, cold‐adapted species. Our results demonstrate how detailed ecophysiological knowledge of individual species, combined with long‐term demographic data, can reveal complex and sometimes unexpected shifts in community composition in response to climate change. Further, these results highlight the potentially overwhelming impact of changes in phenology on the response of biota to a changing climate.     

古尔班通古特沙漠一年生植物的氮吸收策略

同一生活型的植物可能通过吸收不同形态的氮来利用陆地生态系统中有限的氮, 避免和减少对资源的竞争, 从而完成共生。研究荒漠生态系统同一生活型植物对氮的利用是否存在生态位分离, 有助于深入了解荒漠植物的生存策略, 更好掌握氮利用对荒漠植物生存的影响。该研究利用¹⁵N同位素示踪法, 研究古尔班通古特沙漠中广泛分布的2种一年生植物——角果藜(Ceratocarpus arenarius)和碱蓬(Suaeda glauca)在不同月份和不同土壤深度对不同形态氮的吸收策略。结果显示, 在浅层土壤中, 2种植物7月的氮吸收速率均高于6月; 对比不同形态氮的吸收速率, 植物对无机氮的吸收均高于有机氮, 角果藜更偏好吸收硝态氮, 每克干根系最高氮吸收速率可达3.81 μg·h^-1, 碱蓬更偏好吸收铵态氮, 每克干根系最高氮吸收速率可达4.74 μg·h^-1; 从不同形态氮对总氮的贡献率看, 硝态氮是角果藜吸收氮的有利形态, 占比在35.7%-43.9%之间, 铵态氮是碱蓬吸收氮的有利形态, 占比最高可达48.3%, 最低也有40.0%。2种一年生植物不仅可以利用土壤中的无机氮, 也可以直接吸收利用土壤有机氮。研究结果表明: 在古尔班通古特沙漠生态系统中, 一年生植物对氮的吸收能力有着差异和多元化的特点, 且均可吸收土壤中的可溶性有机态氮源。     

Bet hedging in desert winter annual plants: optimal germination strategies in a variable environment

In bet hedging, organisms sacrifice short‐term success to reduce the long‐term variance in success. Delayed germination is the classic example of bet hedging, in which a fraction of seeds remain dormant as a hedge against the risk of complete reproductive failure. Here, we investigate the adaptive nature of delayed germination as a bet hedging strategy using long‐term demographic data on Sonoran Desert winter annual plants. Using stochastic population models, we estimate fitness as a function of delayed germination and identify evolutionarily stable strategies for 12 abundant species in the community. Results indicate that delayed germination meets the criteria as a bet hedging strategy for all species. Density‐dependent models, but not density‐independent ones, predicted optimal germination strategies that correspond remarkably well with observed patterns. By incorporating naturally occurring variation in seed and seedling dynamics, our results present a rigorous test of bet hedging theory within the relevant environmental context.