caa a22 4500 606218068 CHVBK 20210128101110.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150401xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11104-014-2366-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11104-014-2366-4 Effects of rainfall pattern on the growth and fecundity of a dominant dune annual in a semi-arid ecosystem [Elektronische Daten] [Ruiru Gao, Xuejun Yang, Guofang Liu, Zhenying Huang, Jeffrey Walck] Aims: Current and future changes in rainfall patterns - amount and frequency - may particularly impact annual plants in semi-arid ecosystems. The aim of this study was to investigate how changes in rainfall patterns affect the growth and fecundity of sand dune annuals. Methods: The effects of gradients in five rainfall amounts and five frequencies, based on historical and predicted values, on growth and fecundity of Agriophyllum squarrosum, a dominant annual in Mu Us Sandland, were examined in the near natural habitat. Results: Rainfall amount and frequency significantly affected all vegetative and reproductive traits. With decreased amount of rainfall, height, biomass, seed number, seed mass and reproductive effort decreased, while root/shoot ratio increased. Except for the two extreme frequencies (1- and 120-day intervals), values of all vegetative and reproductive traits increased with the increase of rainfall frequencies. Germinability of offspring seeds tended to increase with increasing aridity, suggesting that a maternal effect may have been present. Conclusions: Our study shows that the plastic response in growth and fecundity of A. squarrosum to rainfall fluctuation allows the plant to survive and reproduce under current unpredictable environments as well as the increased variability predicted with climate change in semi-arid regions. Springer International Publishing Switzerland, 2014 Agriophyllum squarrosum nationallicence Climate change nationallicence Rainfall pulse nationallicence Annual plant nationallicence Semi-arid ecosystem nationallicence Gao Ruiru State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China aut Yang Xuejun State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China aut Liu Guofang State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China aut Huang Zhenying State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China aut Walck Jeffrey Evolution and Ecology Group, Department of Biology, Middle Tennessee State University, 37132, Murfreesboro, TN, USA aut Plant and Soil Springer International Publishing 389/1-2(2015-04-01), 335-347 0032-079X 389:1-2<335 2015 389 11104 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2366-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2366-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gao Ruiru State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Yang Xuejun State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Liu Guofang State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Huang Zhenying State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Walck Jeffrey Evolution and Ecology Group, Department of Biology, Middle Tennessee State University, 37132, Murfreesboro, TN, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Plant and Soil Springer International Publishing 389/1-2(2015-04-01), 335-347 0032-079X 389:1-2<335 2015 389 11104