Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T23:06:14.006Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Adaptation to water level variation: Responses of a floating-leaved macrophyte Nymphoides peltata to terrestrial habitats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2010

Zhongqiang Li
Affiliation:
The State Field Station of Freshwater Ecosystems of Liangzi Lake, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P.R. China Faculty of Resources and Environment, Hubei University, Wuhan, P.R. China
Dan Yu*
Affiliation:
The State Field Station of Freshwater Ecosystems of Liangzi Lake, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P.R. China
Jun Xu
Affiliation:
Donghu Experimental Station of Lake Ecosystems, State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, P.R. China
*
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

A straightforward experimental approach was carried out to study the adaptation responses of a typical floating-leaved aquatic plant Nymphoides peltata to changes in water availability. N. peltata grown in terrestrial habitat was approximately 88.77% lower in total biomass, 62.75% higher in root biomass allocation, 80.9% higher in root-shoot ratio, and 54.5% longer in leaf longevity compared with N. peltata grown in aquatic habitats. Anatomical analyses suggest that aquatic-grown N. peltata exhibits a well-developed lacunal system in leaf, petiole, and coarse root. Moreover, aquatic-grown N. peltata had approximately a higher in lacunal system in leaf, petiole, and coarse root by 28.57%, 56.41% and 82.35%, respectively, than those of terrestrial-grown N. peltata. These results indicated that N. peltata was well adapted to the terrestrial habitat because of its biomass allocation, morphological, and anatomical strategies that depended on the increase in root biomass allocation and leaf longevity, as well as the decrease in the lacunal system volume in leaf, petiole, and coarse root. This indicates that N. peltata can develop multiple morphological and anatomical strategies, an integrated approach to enhance survival in dynamic and unpredictable environments.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bazzaz, F.A., 1996. Plant in Changing Environment: Linking Physiological, Population, and Community Ecology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Blom, C.W.P.M., Voesenek, L.A.C.J., Banga, M., Engelaar, W.M.H.G., Rijnders, J.H.G.M., van de Steeg, H.M. and Visser, J.W., 1994. Physiological ecology of river-side species: adaptive responses of plants to submergence. Aquat. Bot. , 38, 2947.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Center, T.D. and Van, T.K., 1989. Alternation of water hyaeinth (Eichhorina crassipers (Mart.) Solms.) leaf dynamics and phytochemistry by insect damage and plant density. Aquat. Bot. , 35, 181195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapin, F.S. III, Autumn, K. and Pugnaire, F., 1993. Evolution of suites of traits in response to environmental stress. Amer. Natural. , 142, S78S92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, S.A. and Johnson, M.P., 1968. Adaption to heterogeneous environments. I. Variation in heterophylly in Ranunculus flammula L. Evolut. , 22, 496516.Google Scholar
Hayakawa, T., Nakamura, T., Hattori, F., Mae, T., Ojima, K. and Yamaya, T., 1994. Cellular localization of NADH-dependent glutamate-synthase protein in vascular bundles of unexpanded leaf blades and young grains. Planta , 193, 455460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, W.M., Zhang, H. and Dong, M., 2004. Plasticity in fitness and fitness-related traits at ramet and genet levels in a tillering grass Panicum miliaceum under patchy soil nutrients. Plant Ecol. , 172, 110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hourdin, P., Vignoles, P., Dreyfuss, G. and Rondelaud, D., 2006. Galba truncatula (Gastropoda, Lymnaeidae): effects of daily waterlevel variations on the ecology and ethology of populations living upstream from a dam. Ann . Limnol. - Int. J. Lim. , 42, 173180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, R.B., Mooney, H.A. and Schulze, E.D., 1997. A global budget for fine root biomass, surface area, and nutrient contents. PNAS , 94, 73627366.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kikuzawa, K., 1991. A cost-benefit analysis of leaf habit and leaf longevity of trees and their geographical pattern. Amer. Natural. , 138, 12501263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leira, M. and Cantonati, M., 2008. Effects of water-level fluctuations on lakes: an annotated bibliography. Hydrobiologia , 613, 171184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, S.W., Pezeshki, S.R. and Goodwin, S., 2004. Effects of soil moisture regimes on photosynthesis and growth in cattail (Typha latifolia). Acta Oecologia , 25, 1722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynn, D.E. and Waldren, S., 2003. Survival of Ranunculus repens L. (Creeping Buttercup) in an amphibious habitat. Ann. Bot. , 91, 7584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mommer, L., Pons, T.L., Wolters-Arts, M., Venema, J.H. and Visser, E.J.W., 2005. Submergence-induced morphological, anatomical, and biochemical responses in a terrestrial species affect gas diffusion resistance and photosynthetic performance. Plant Physiol. , 139, 497508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mommer, L., Lenssen, J.P.M., Huber, H., Visser, E.W. and Kroon, H.D., 2006. Ecophysiological determinants of plant performance under flooding: a comparative study of seven plant families. J . Ecol. , 94, 11171129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moriuchi, K.S. and Winn, A.A., 2005. Relationships among growth, development and plastic response to environment quality in a perennial plant. New Phytol. , 166, 149158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Navas, M.-L. and Garnier, E., 2002. Plasticity of whole plant and leaf traits in Rubia peregrina in response to light, nutrient and water availability. Acta Oecologia , 23, 375383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oikawa, S., Hikosaka, K. and Hirose, T., 2006. Leaf lifespan and lifetime carbon balance of individual leaves in a stand of an annual herb, Xanthium canadense . New Phytol. , 172, 104116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedersen, O. and Sand-Jensen, K., 1997. Transpiration does not control growth and nutrient supply in the amphibious Mentha aquatica . Plant Cell Envir. , 20, 117123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robe, W.E. and Griffiths, H., 1998. Adaptations for an amphibious life: changes in leaf morphology, growth rate, carbon and nitrogen investment, and reproduction during adjustment to emersion by the freshwater macrophyte Littorella uniflora . New Phytol ., 140, 923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roumet, C., Urcelay, C. and Díaz, S., 2006. Suites of root traits differ between annual and perennial species growing in the field. New Phytol. , 170, 357368.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schlichting, C.D. and Pigliucci, M., 1995. Gene-regulation, quantitative genetics and the evolution of reaction norms. Evolut. Biol. , 9, 154168.Google Scholar
Shangguan, Z.P., Shao, M.A. and Dyckmans, J., 2000. Nitrogen nutrition and water stress effects on leaf photosynthetic gas exchange and water use efficiency in winter wheat. Environ. Exp. Bot. , 44, 141149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steer, M.W., 1981. Understanding cell structure, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sultan, E.S., 2001. Phenotypic plasticity for plant development, function and life history. Trends Plant Sci. , 5, 537542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsuchiya, T., 1988. Comparative studies on the morphology and leaf life span of floating and emerged leaves of Nymphoides peltata (GMEL.) O. Kuntze. Aquat. Bot. , 29, 381386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsuchiya, T., 1991. Leaf life span of floating – leaved plants. Vegetat. , 9, 149160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voesenek, L.A.C.J., Banga, M., Their, R.H., Mudde, C.M., Harren, F.J.M., Barendse, G.W.M. and Blom, C.W.P.M., 1993. Submergence induced ethylene synthesis, entrapment and growth in two plant species with a contrasting flooding resistance. Plant Physiol. , 103, 783791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xie, Y.H., An, S.Q. and Wu, B.F., 2005. Resource allocation in the submerged plant Vallisneria natans related to sediment type, rather than water-column nutrients. Freshwat. Biol. , 50, 391402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamamoto, Y. and Tsukada, H., 2010. Morphological variation in largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides in Lake Biwa, Japan. Ann. Limnol. - Int. J. Lim. , 46, 4145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar