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ARTICLE
Soil Moisture Rather than Soil Nutrient Regulates the Belowground Bud Bank of Rhizomatous Species Psammochloa villosa in Arid Sand Dunes
Yawei Dong1, Ziyue Guo1, Qun Ma2, Zhiming Xin3, Jin Tao1, Jiatai Tian1, Jinlei Zhu3, Zhiming Zhang1,*, Jianqiang Qian1,*
1
College of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002, China
2
Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110164, China
3
Experimental Center of Desert Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Inner Mongolia Dengkou Desert Ecosystem National
Observation Research Station, Dengkou, 015200, China
4
Institute of Landscape and Plant Ecology, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, 70599, Germany
* Corresponding Authors: Zhiming Zhang. Email: ; Jianqiang Qian. Email:
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(5), 1301-1309. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.027043
Received 10 October 2022; Accepted 18 November 2022; Issue published 09 March 2023
Abstract
In arid and semi-arid sand dune ecosystems, belowground bud bank plays an important role in population regeneration and vegetation restoration. However, the responses of belowground bud bank size and composition to
sand burial and its induced changes in soil environmental factors have been rarely studied. In arid sand dunes
of Northwestern China, we investigated belowground bud bank size and composition of the typical rhizomatous
psammophyte
Psammochloa villosa as well as three key soil environmental factors (soil moisture, total carbon and
total nitrogen) under different depths of sand burial. Total buds and rhizome buds increased significantly with
increasing burial depth, whereas tiller buds first increased and then decreased, with a peak value at the depth
of 20–30 cm. Soil moisture increased significantly with sand burial depth, and was positively correlated with
the number of all buds and rhizome buds. Soil total carbon concentration first increased and then decreased with
sand burial depth, and total nitrogen concentration was significantly lower under deep sand burial than those at
shallow depths, and only the number of tiller buds was positively correlated with soil total nitrogen concentration.
These results indicate that soil moisture rather than soil nutrient might regulate the belowground bud bank of
P.
villosa, and that clonal psammophytes could regulate their belowground bud bank in response to sand burial and
the most important environmental stress (i.e., soil moisture). These responses, as the key adaptive strategy, may
ensure clonal plant population regeneration and vegetation restoration in arid sand dunes.
Keywords
Cite This Article
APA Style
Dong, Y., Guo, Z., Ma, Q., Xin, Z., Tao, J. et al. (2023). Soil moisture rather than soil nutrient regulates the belowground bud bank of rhizomatous species <i>psammochloa villosa</i> in arid sand dunes. Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, 92(5), 1301-1309. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.027043
Vancouver Style
Dong Y, Guo Z, Ma Q, Xin Z, Tao J, Tian J, et al. Soil moisture rather than soil nutrient regulates the belowground bud bank of rhizomatous species <i>psammochloa villosa</i> in arid sand dunes. Phyton-Int J Exp Bot. 2023;92(5):1301-1309 https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.027043
IEEE Style
Y. Dong et al., "Soil Moisture Rather than Soil Nutrient Regulates the Belowground Bud Bank of Rhizomatous Species <i>Psammochloa villosa</i> in Arid Sand Dunes," Phyton-Int. J. Exp. Bot., vol. 92, no. 5, pp. 1301-1309. 2023. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.027043