title: Morphological and structural plasticity of grassland species in response to a gradient in saline-sodic soils.
abstract: The abundance and distribution of species can be ascribed to both environmental heterogeneity and stress tolerance, with the latter measure sometimes associated with phenotypic plasticity. Although phenotypic plasticity varies predictably in response to common forms of stress, we lack a mechanistic understanding of the response of species to high saline-sodic soils. We compared the phenotypic plasticity of three pairs of high and low saline-sodic tolerant congeners from the families Poaceae (Leymus chinensis versus L. secalinus), Fabaceae (Lespedeza davurica versus L. bicolor) and Asteraceae (Artemisia mongolica versus A. sieversiana) in a controlled pot experiment in the Songnen grassland, China. The low tolerant species, L. secalinus and A. sieversiana exhibited higher plasticity in response to soil salinity and sodicity than their paired congeners. Highly tolerant species, L. chinensis and A. mongolica, had higher values for several important morphological traits, such as shoot length and total biomass under the high saline-sodic soil treatment than their paired congeners. In contrast, congeners from the family Fabaceae, L. davurica and L. bicolor, did not exhibit significantly different plasticity in response to soil salinity and sodicity. All species held a constant reproductive effort in response to saline-sodic soil stress. The different responses between low and high tolerant species offer an explanation for the distribution patterns of these species in the Songnen grassland. Highly tolerant species showed less morphological plasticity over a range of saline-sodic conditions than their paired congeners, which may manifest as an inability to compete with co-occurring species in locations where saline-sodic soils are absent.
authors.affiliation: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Environment and Resource, Dalian Nationalities University, Dalian, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation (Alliance Between Industry and Investment NSW and Charles Sturt University), Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.|Centre of Excellence for Climate Change, Woodland and Forest Health, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.|Science and Conservation Division, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Bentley, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Drake
authors.affiliation: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: College of Biology and Food Engineering, Jilin Teachers' Institute of Engineering and Technology, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D019659:Asteraceae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D018533:Biomass; D002681:China; D007887:Fabaceae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D065948:Grassland; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D010641:Phenotype; D006109:Poaceae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D054712:Salinity; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000378:metabolism*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D012965:Sodium Chloride
keywords: Grassland; phenotypic plasticity; reproductive effort; saline-sodic soil; tolerance