Ecological Consequences of Clonal Integration in Plants

Clonal plants are widespread throughout the plant kingdom and dominate in diverse habitats. Spatiotemporal heterogeneity of environment is pervasive at multiple scales, even at scales relevant to individual plants. Clonal integration refers to resource translocation and information communication amo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in Plant Science
Main Authors: Liu, Fenghong, Liu, Jian, Dong, Ming
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA 2016
Subjects:
clonal plants
environmental heterogeneity
physiological integration
ramet/genet
resource translocation
Plant Sciences
ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI
DIVISION-OF-LABOR
FRAGARIA-CHILOENSIS
PSAMMOCHLOA-VILLOSA
CAREX-BIGELOWII
ALTERNANTHERA-PHILOXEROIDES
MORPHOLOGICAL PLASTICITY
RESOURCE HETEROGENEITY
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
Carex bigelowii
Online Access:http://ir.ibcas.ac.cn/handle/2S10CLM1/25169
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.00770
Description
Summary:Clonal plants are widespread throughout the plant kingdom and dominate in diverse habitats. Spatiotemporal heterogeneity of environment is pervasive at multiple scales, even at scales relevant to individual plants. Clonal integration refers to resource translocation and information communication among the ramets of clonal plants. Due to clonal integration, clonal plant species possess a series of peculiar attributes: plasticity in response to local and non-local conditions, labor division with organ specialization for acquiring locally abundant resources, foraging behavior by selective placement of ramets in resource-rich microhabitats, and avoidance of intraclonal competition. Clonal integration has very profound ecological consequences for clonal plants. It allows them to efficiently cope with environmental heterogeneity, by alleviating local resource shortages, buffering environmental stresses and disturbances, influencing competitive ability, increasing invasiveness, and altering species composition and invasibility at the community level. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of research on the ecological consequences of plant clonal integration based on a large body of literature. We also attempt to propose perspectives for future research.

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