Abstract
Precipitation changes may induce shifts in plant species or life form dominance in ecosystems, making some previously subordinate species abundant. The plasticity of certain plant functional traits of these expanding subordinate species may be one possible mechanism behind their success. In this study, we tested if the subordinate winter annual grass Secale sylvestre shows plasticity in growth and reproduction in response to altered environment associated with field-scale rainfall manipulations (severe drought, moderate drought, and watering) in a semiarid grassland, and whether the maternal environment influences offspring germination or growth in a subsequent pot experiment. Compared to control plots, S. sylvestre plants grew 38% taller, and produced 32% more seeds in severe drought plots, while plants in watered plots were 17% shorter, and had 22% less seeds. Seed mass was greatest in severe drought plots. Plants growing in drought plots had offspring with enhanced juvenile shoot growth compared to the progeny whose mother plants grew in watered plots. These responses are most likely explained by the decreased cover of previously dominant perennial grasses in severe drought plots, which resulted in wetter soil compared to control and watered plots during the peak growth of S. sylvestre. We conclude that the plasticity of this subordinate annual species in response to changing environment may help to gain dominance with recurring droughts that suppress perennial grasses. Our results highlight that exploring both within-generation and transgenerational plasticity of subordinate species may lead to a better prediction of changes in plant species dominance under climate change.
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Acknowledgements
This work is a part of the projects Nos. 120844 and 112576, which has been implemented with the support provided by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund (NRDI Fund) of Hungary, financed under the PD_16 (AM) and K (GK-D) funding scheme, respectively. This study was also part of the project Sustainable Use of Ecosystem Services (GINOP-2.3.2-15-2016-00019) funded by the NRDI Office (GK-D and GÓ). This research was also supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (GK-D). We are grateful to the Kiskunság National Park for the support to our field work. We thank Péter Ódor for his advice on statistical analyses. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.
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GK-D designed and established the rainfall manipulation experiment. AM and GK-D conceived the concept of the research. AM conducted fieldwork with the help of BL in developing the methodology. GÓ collected and processed the micrometeorological and vegetation cover data. AM, TK, and PC designed, and AM performed the pot experiment. AM analysed the data and wrote the manuscript with major inputs from all co-authors.
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Mojzes, A., Ónodi, G., Lhotsky, B. et al. Within-generation and transgenerational plasticity in growth and regeneration of a subordinate annual grass in a rainfall experiment. Oecologia 188, 1059–1068 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4264-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4264-6