Back to Contents

FREE FULL TEXT PDF

REPRODUCTIVE ALLOCATION OF CORISPERMUM ELONGATUM IN TWO TYPICAL SANDY HABITATS

YU-HUI HE^1*, HA-LIN ZHAO¹, XIN-PING LIU¹, XUE-YONG ZHAO¹, TONG-HUI ZHANG¹ AND SAM DRAKE²

Abstract: The annual plant Corispermum elongatum is endemic to the sandy soils in the Horqin Sandy Land of eastern Inner Mongolia, China. It plays an important role in sand stabilization and vegetation restoration in the Horqin region. However, studies about the difference of reproductive allocation in C. elongatum in different sandy habitats were limited. To detect this, a test was conducted on typical fixed and mobile sand dunes in the Horqin Sandy Land. The results showed that habitat type had a significant effect on the pattern of reproductive allocation in C.elongatum. The dry weight of reproductive structure, spike number, length of spike, dry weight of vegetative structure, dry weight of reproductive structure relative to total above-ground dry weight biomass, and the number of primary branches were all larger in C. elongatum plants in fixed sand dunes than in mobile sand dunes. The resources allocated to reproduction were size-dependent and also affected by the habitats sampled. C.elongatum plants inhabiting the better fixed-dune habitat seem to allocate more resources to reproduction to increase population size, while vegetative growth appears to be relatively more important for the survival of C.elongatum in the harsh mobile-dune habitat. This information is important for a better understanding of the adaptation strategy of C.elongatum in different habitats.

¹Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou, 730000, PR China.

²Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona, 1955E. 6th Street, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA.

^*E-mail: ahuihyh@126.com