Understanding how root traits vary within a species and how traits respond to heterogeneous environments, can provide important insight into functional plant attributes that influence plant survival in competitive environments. Selecting plant material with root traits that will support its survival in heterogenous environments may help improve the outcomes of ecological restoration, yet root traits are rarely incorporated into restoration sourcing decisions. Specifically, the impacts of population-level variation in root traits of restoration material are often overlooked. For these reasons, root traits of seedlings from two populations of Elymus elymoides spp. elymoides were quantified. Elymus elymoides is a native perennial bunchgrass frequently used in restoration in the Colorado Plateau that has been shown to exhibit significant among-population variation in many above- and below-ground traits. Plant were grown in a greenhouse study imposing a water stress gradient. The water stress gradient revealed differing allocation strategies and plastic responses to water stress in each population: the Ashley population had higher root mass fraction (RMF) and greater root allocation under water stress than the Fishlake population, which allocated more biomass to aboveground growth (including seed production). These results suggest that populations that allocate more growth to belowground traits (as in the Ashley population) will perform better in restorations where water stress is prevalent. However, this presents a practical challenge when trying to produce seeds for restoration because plants that invest more in root growth tend to have lower seed production, as only the Fishlake population produced seeds during the study period.

Last modified

• 03/27/2020

Creator

• Alicia J. Foxx

Contributors

• Andrea T. Kramer (advisor)

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-6929-k290

Subject

• Native plant population traits

Language

• English

Keyword

• gravel
• water stress
• intraspecific trait variation
• sand
• native grass

Date created

• 2013-10-10

Resource type

• Dataset

Rights statement

• No Known Copyright