ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess


Abstract Number: 3604
Poster No. = 2057


GROWTH AND ALLOCATIONAL PLASTICITY OF TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE


K.Donaghue, K.Weber, D.Sheridan, and K.McConnaughay, Bradley University, Peoria, IL, USA


We examined plastic growth and allocation responses of Trifolium pratense to spatial and temporal heterogeneity in light, water and nutrient availability. Individual seedlings were grown at low (L) or high (H) resource availability for each of the resources. At one week of growth, half of the seedlings experienced a shift in resource. Seedling growth increased under high light and water environments, some responses occurred without changes in biomass allocation patterns. Nutrient levels appeared to have no effect on growth or root/shoot allocation. The most plasticity was observed in response to variable light environments. These results demonstrate that adjustments in growth rates in response to variable resource supply are not always correlated with adjustments in biomass allocation patterns, contrary to predictions based on optimal partitioning theories.


HTML-Version made 7. July 1999 by Kurt Stüber