Publication Date:
2019
Description:
Exotic plant invasion may have unique functional traits that distinguish them from other species. The extension and structure of functional traits variation in response to different soil factors between invasive and native plants are poorly understood. The plant functional traits and soil factors of the invasive plant, Amaranthus palmeri and its coexisting plant Polygonum orientale were investigated under three heterogeneous habitats: roadside (rs), wasteland (wl) and riverbank (rb) in Tianjin, China. The shoot dry weight (SDW) and leaf nitrogen (LN) of A. palmeri were significantly higher compared with P. orientale, while A. palmeri had significantly lower leaf dry weight (LDW), leaf area (LA), leaf carbon (LC), leaf C/N ratio under different habitats. The larger phenotypic plasticity (SDW, LDW, LA, LN, LC) of A. palmeri is one of the important reasons for their successful invasion to heterogeneous habitats. Similarly, the soil water content (SWC) of both species shows a significant difference (P 〈 0.05) with maximum in riverbank habitat to lowest in roadside habitat. Soil N/P ratio, C/N ratio and C/P ratio of rb habitats were significantly lower compared to wl and rs habitats (P 〈 0.05). A redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that SWC was the dominant soil factor affecting the functional traits of A. palmeri and P. orientale. However, A. palmeri formed an environmental adaptation strategy by changing traits of SDW, LN and leaf C/N ratio which was different from P. orientale by changing traits of LA and LDW.
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Print ISSN:
1863-0650
Electronic ISSN:
1863-0669
Topics:
Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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