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Patch structure and ramet demography of the clonal tree, Asimina triloba, under gap and closed-canopy

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Abstract

Clonal understory trees develop into patches of interconnected and genetically identical ramets that have the potential to persist for decades or centuries. These patches develop beneath forest canopies that are structurally heterogeneous in space and time. Canopy heterogeneity, in turn, is responsible for the highly variable understory light environment that is typically associated with deciduous forests. We investigated what aspects of patch structure (density, size structure, and reproductive frequency of ramets) of the clonal understory tree, Asimina triloba, were correlated with forest canopy conditions. Specifically, we compared A. triloba patches located beneath closed canopies and canopy gaps. We also conducted a three-year demographic study of individual ramets within patches distributed across a light gradient. The closed canopy-gap comparison demonstrated that the patches of A. triloba had a higher frequency of large and flowering ramets in gaps compared to closed-canopy stands, but total ramet density was lower in gaps than in closed canopy stands. In the demographic study, individual ramet growth was positively correlated with light availability, although the pattern was not consistent for all years. Neither ramet recruitment nor mortality was correlated with light conditions. Our results indicate that the structure of A. triloba patches was influenced by canopy condition, but does not necessarily depend on the responses of ramets to current light conditions. The lack of differences in ramet recruitment and mortality under varying canopy conditions is likely to be a primary reason for the long-term expansion and persistence of the patches. The primary benefit of a positive growth response to increasing light is the transition of relatively small ramets into flowering ramets within a short period of time.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Pre-doctoral Fellowship to Naomi Hosaka from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. We thank Takashi Tani and Jun-ichirou Suzuki for constructive comments on earlier versions of the manuscript; Geoffrey G. Parker, Catherine E. Lovelock, and Ilka C. Feller for technical support for the field measurements; Dwight Williams and Richard S. Hammerschlag for the guidance in the study sites. We are very grateful to Jay O’Neill, Sara Gómez, Laura Dietrich, Dawn Miller, and Reginald Reid for invaluable field assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biodiversity Division, National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8604, Japan

    Naomi Hosaka

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397, Japan

    Naoki Kachi

  3. Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, Nada-ku, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Hiroshi Kudoh

  4. Department of Ecology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1, 6525ED, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Josef F. Stuefer

  5. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MA, 21037, USA

    Dennis F. Whigham

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  1. Naomi Hosaka
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  2. Naoki Kachi
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  4. Josef F. Stuefer
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  5. Dennis F. Whigham
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Correspondence to Naomi Hosaka.

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Hosaka, N., Kachi, N., Kudoh, H. et al. Patch structure and ramet demography of the clonal tree, Asimina triloba, under gap and closed-canopy. Plant Ecol 197, 219–228 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9372-z

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