Skip to main content
Log in

Contrasting bud bank dynamics of two co-occurring grasses in tallgrass prairie: implications for grassland dynamics

Plant Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Because most shoot recruitment in perennial grasses occurs from belowground axillary buds, bud dynamics determine plant population dynamics and meristem limitation to population growth. Therefore, grassland vegetation responses to environmental change or disturbance may be influenced by interspecific differences in bud banks and the patterns and environmental controls of bud development and demography. We examined bud bank dynamics in Andropogon gerardii and Dichanthelium oligosanthes in tallgrass prairie by enumerating and classifying buds throughout 15 months to determine whether grass buds live for multiple years and accumulate; whether bud natality, dormancy and outgrowth are synchronous or variable; and whether bud bank dynamics differ between these co-occurring species. Andropogon gerardii (a C4 species) maintained a larger dormant bud bank, showed synchrony in bud development and transition to tiller, and its buds lived for multiple years. Thus, multiple previous years’ bud cohorts contributed to recruitment. By contrast, D. oligosanthes (a C3 species) maintained a smaller dormant bud bank, had asynchronous bud development with active buds present year-round, and its buds lived for 1 year. Buds played different roles in the dynamics of each species, allowing A. gerardii to over-winter and recruit new spring tillers and D. oligosanthes to survive and recruit new tillers following summer dormancy. These differences in bud bank age structure, phenology, and dynamics between these species suggest greater demographic buffering and time-lag effects in A. gerardii populations. Interspecific differences in bud bank structure and dynamics may explain and help predict grassland responses to environmental change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

References

  • Baskin CC, Baskin JM (1998) Ecology of seed dormancy and germination. In: Cheplick GP (ed) Population biology of grasses. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 30–83

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Benson EJ, Hartnett DC (2006) The role of seed and vegetative reproduction in plant recruitment and demography in tallgrass prairie. Plant Ecol 187:163–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernard JM (1975) The life history of shoots of Carex lacustris. Can J Bot 53:256–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler JL, Briske DD (1988) Population structure and tiller demography of the bunchgrass Schizachyrium scoparium in response to herbivory. Oikos 51:306–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cable DR (1971) Growth and development of Arizona cottontop (Trichachne californica [benth]chase). Bot Gaz 132:119–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlsson BA, Callaghan TV (1990) Programmed tiller differentiation, intraclonal density regulation and nutrient dynamics in Carex bigelowii. Oikos 58:219–230

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dalgleish HJ, Hartnett DC (2006) Below-ground bud banks increase along a precipitation gradient of the North American Great Plains: a test of the meristem limitation hypothesis. New Phytol 171:81–89

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eneboe EJ, Sowell BF, Heitschmidt RK, Karl MG, Haferkamp MR (2002) Drought and grazing: IV. Blue grama and western wheatgrass. J Range Manage 55:197–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein HE, Lauenroth WK, Burke IC, Coffin DP (1997) Productivity patterns of C-3 and C-4 functional types in the US Great Plains. Ecology 78:722–731

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein HE, Gill RA, Paruelo JM, Lauenroth WK, Jia GJ, Burke IC (2002) The relative abundance of three plant functional types in temperate grasslands and shrublands of North and South America: effects of projected climate change. J Biogeogr 29:875–888

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harper JL (1977) Population biology of plants. Academic Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hendrickson JR, Briske DD (1997) Axillary bud banks of two semiarid perennial grasses: occurrence, longevity, and contribution to population persistance. Oecologia 110:584–591

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hultgren ABC (1988) A demographic study of aerial shoots of Carex rostrata in relation to water level. Aquat Bot 30:81–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jonsdottir GA (1991) Tiller demography in seashore populations of Agrostis stolonifera, Festuca rubra, and Poa irrigata. J Veg Sci 2:89–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaspar TC, Bland WL (1992) Soil temperature and root growth. Soil Sci 154:290–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klimesova J, Klimes L (2007) Bud banks and their role in vegetative regeneration—a literature review and proposal for simple classification and assessment. Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 8:115–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knapp AK, Briggs JM, Hartnett DC, Collins SL (1998) Grassland dynamics: long-term ecological research in Tallgrass Prairie. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Langer RHM (1956) Growth and nutrition of timothy: life history of individual tillers. Ann Appl Biol 44:166–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langer RHM, Ryle SM, Jewiss OR (1964) The changing plant and tiller populations of timothy and meadow fescue swards. I. Plant survival and the pattern of tillering. J Appl Ecol 1:197–208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McIntyre GI (1970) Studies on bud development in rhizome of Agropyron repens. 1. Influence of temperature, light intensity, and bud position on pattern of development. Can J Bot 48:1903–1909

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKendrick JD, Owensby CE, Hyde RM (1975) Big bluestem and indiangrass vegetative reproduction and annual reserve carbohydrate and nitrogen cycles. Agro-Ecosystems 2:75–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell KJ (1953) Influence of light and temperature on the growth of ryegrass (Lolium spp). II. The control of lateral bud development. Physiol Plant 6:425–443

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller RJ, Richards JH (1986) Morphological analysis of tillering in Agropyron spicatum and Agropyron desertorum. Ann Bot 58:911–921

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble JC, Bell AD, Harper JL (1979) Population biology of plants with clonal growth. 1. Morphology and structural demography of Carex arenaria. J Ecol 67:983–1008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson BE, Richards JH (1988) Annual replacement of the tillers of Agropyron desertorum following grazing. Oecologia 76:1–6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ott JP (2009) Bud bank morphology, dynamics, and production in perennial grasses. Thesis, Kansas State University

  • Ott JP, Hartnett DC (2011) Bud production and dynamics of flowering and vegetative tillers in Androgpogon gerardii (Poaceae): the role of developmental constraints. Am J Bot 98:1293–1298

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ripley B, Donald G, Osborne CP, Abraham T, Martin T (2010) Experimental investigation of fire ecology in the C3 and C4 subspecies of Alloteropsis semialata. J Ecol 98:1196–1203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robson MJ (1968) A comparison of British and North African varieties of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea). IV. Tiller production in single plants. J Appl Ecol 5:431–443

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers WE, Hartnett DC (2001) Temporal vegetation dynamics and recolonization mechanisms on different-sized soil disturbances in tallgrass prairie. Am J Bot 88:1634–1642

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz MD, Ahas R, Aasa A (2006) Onset of spring starting earlier across the Northern Hemisphere. Glob Change Biol 12:343–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soukupova L (1988) Short life-cycles in two wetland sedges. Aquat Bot 30:49–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tamm A, Kull K, Sammul M (2002) Classifying clonal growth forms based on vegetative mobility and ramet longevity: a whole community analysis. Evol Ecol 15:383–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson K, Grime JP (1979) Seasonal variation in the seed banks of herbaceous species in ten contrasting habitats. J Ecol 67:893–921

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veenendaal EM, Ernst WHO, Modise GS (1996) Effect of seasonal rainfall pattern on seedling emergence and establishment of grasses in a savanna in south-eastern Botswana. J Arid Environ 32:305–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang J, Mu C, Wang D, Wang J, Chen G (2009) Shoot population recruitment from a bud bank over two seasons of undisturbed growth of Leymus chinensis. Botany 87:1242–1249

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank J. Blair, C. Ferguson, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions on previous drafts of the manuscript, T. Joern for the use of his microscope and camera, and C. Sinn for fieldwork assistance. This study was funded by the KSU Division of Biology, the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research Program, and the USDA Rangeland Research Program Grant 310306.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jacqueline P. Ott.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

11258_2012_102_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Fate of buds produced on (a) pre-2007 and (b) 2007 tillers of Andropogon gerardii between October 2007 and October 2008. Buds were either developing or mature (DMB) or activated (AB) or had grown out into vegetative (VT) or flowering (FT) tillers. Fewer buds from the pre-2007 cohort (13 ± 1 %) transitioned to the activated stage than from the 2007 cohort (34 ± 1 %). However, after floral initiation, a larger percentage of the pre-2007 cohort’s vegetative tillers (32 ± 5 %) became flowering tillers than the 2007 cohort’s vegetative tillers (19 ± 2 %). (TIFF 25205 kb)

11258_2012_102_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Fate of buds produced on (a) 2007 and (b) 2008 mature tillers of Dichanthelium oligosanthes. Buds were either mature (MB), activated (AB), or photosynthesizing (PB) or had grown out into juvenile (JT), vegetative (VT) or flowering (FT) tillers. The flowering status of some tillers was unknown (UT) due to culm damage. When considering the bud bank collectively, an asynchrony in bud development was evident. By July 2008, almost all of the buds from the 2007 cohort had either died or had transitioned to tillers. (TIFF 26179 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ott, J.P., Hartnett, D.C. Contrasting bud bank dynamics of two co-occurring grasses in tallgrass prairie: implications for grassland dynamics. Plant Ecol 213, 1437–1448 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-012-0102-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-012-0102-9

Keywords

Navigation