title: Intraspecific variation of a desert shrub species in phenotypic plasticity in response to sand burial.
abstract: Shoot elongation is one of the main plastic responses of plants to burial, a ubiquitous stress factor in dry ecosystems. Yet, intraspecific variation in this response to burial and the extent to which this variation is functionally coordinated with variation in other trait responses are largely unknown. We subjected seedlings of the shrub Caragana intermedia from 18 maternal parents (i.e. different half-sib families) to repeated partial burial to investigate how burial affects shoot growth, stem mechanical traits and associated plasticity. Burial increased both stem elongation and diameter growth of plants, but decreased biomass production. Half-sib families had different rates of shoot elongation, and differed in their response to burial with respect to biomechanical stem properties. Across half-sib families, the magnitude of these responses in mechanical traits was positively correlated with the magnitude of the stem elongation response. These results indicate that plasticity in different stem traits in response to sand burial and intraspecific variation therein are functionally coordinated with respect to mechanical stability. The results emphasize the importance of considering functionally coordinated traits when analyzing phenotypic plasticity in plants.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.|Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University, PO Box 800.84, 3508 TB, Utrecht, the Netherlands.|Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.|Dalian Nationalities University, Dalian, 116600, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Experimental Plant Ecology, IWWR, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Heidrun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.affiliation: Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University, PO Box 800.84, 3508 TB, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Heinjo J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: During
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.|Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 310036, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Wageningen University, PO Box 430, NL-6700 AK, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Niels P R
authors.initials: NPR
authors.lastname: Anten
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D018533:Biomass; D032602:Caragana / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D003889:Desert Climate; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D010641:Phenotype; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D012822:Silicon Dioxide
keywords: biomass; biomechanics; functional trait coordination; half-sib family; phenotypic plasticity; sand burial; shoot elongation