Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36282998›Full record

ArticleAnnals of botany2022

Plant clonality in a soil-impoverished open ecosystem: insights from southwest Australian shrublands.

James L Tsakalos, Gianluigi Ottaviani, Stefano Chelli, Alethea Rea, Scott Elder, Mark P Dobrowolski, Ladislav Mucina

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Annals of botany, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
2.6field-weighted citation impact, top 11% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.

James L TsakalosSchool of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, Plant Diversity and Ecosystems Management Unit, University of Camerino, Camerino, MC, Italy.ORCID 0000-0001-5067-196X
Gianluigi OttavianiDepartment of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.ORCID 0000-0003-3027-4638
Stefano ChelliSchool of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, Plant Diversity and Ecosystems Management Unit, University of Camerino, Camerino, MC, Italy.ORCID 0000-0001-7184-8242
Alethea ReaHarry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Perth, WA, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-0750-7501
Scott ElderHarry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Perth, WA, Australia.
Mark P DobrowolskiHarry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Perth, WA, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-5586-4023
Ladislav MucinaHarry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Perth, WA, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-0317-8886
Murdoch University · AUUniversità di Camerino · ITMasaryk University · CZ

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND

aimsClonality is a key life-history strategy promoting on-spot persistence, space occupancy, resprouting after disturbance, and resource storage, sharing and foraging. These functions provided by clonality can be advantageous under different environmental conditions, including resource-paucity and fire-proneness, which define most mediterranean-type open ecosystems, such as southwest Australian shrublands. Studying clonality-environment links in underexplored mediterranean shrublands could therefore deepen our understanding of the role played by this essential strategy in open ecosystems globally.

methodsWe created a new dataset including 463 species, six traits related to clonal growth organs (CGOs; lignotubers, herbaceous and woody rhizomes, stolons, tubers, stem fragments), and edaphic predictors of soil water availability, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from 138 plots. Within two shrubland communities, we explored multivariate clonal patterns and how the diversity of CGOs, and abundance-weighted and unweighted proportions .of clonality in plots changed along with the edaphic gradients. KEY

resultsWe found clonality in 65 % of species; the most frequent were those with lignotubers (28 %) and herbaceous rhizomes (26 %). In multivariate space, plots clustered into two groups, one distinguished by sandy plots and plants with CGOs, the other by clayey plots and non-clonal species. CGO diversity did not vary along the edaphic gradients (only marginally with water availability). The abundance-weighted proportion of clonal species increased with N and decreased with P and water availability, yet these results were CGO-specific. We revealed almost no relationships for unweighted clonality.

conclusionsClonality is more widespread in shrublands than previously thought, and distinct plant communities are distinguished by specific suites (or lack) of CGOs. We show that weighting belowground traits by aboveground abundance affects the results, with implications for trait-based ecologists using abundance-weighting. We suggest unweighted approaches for belowground organs in open ecosystems until belowground abundance is quantifiable.

Indexed as

EcosystemSoilAustraliaPlantsWaterSoilWaterAridityclonal growth organsfine-scale edaphic gradientskwonganlignotuberopen shrubby ecosystemsrhizome

Identifiers

PMID36282998
PMCPMC9851296
OpenAlexW4307220688

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.