Effect of sex ratio, habitat factors and neighborhood competition on stem growth in the dioecious tree Fraxinus mandshurica

Ecological Research - Tập 29 - Trang 309-317 - 2014
Xinna Zhang1, Chunyu Zhang1, Xiuhai Zhao2
1Key Laboratory for Forest Resources and Ecosystem Processes of Beijing, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China
2Forest College in Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

Tóm tắt

Growth rates of male and female trees are often different in a dioecious species. In this study, we analyzed sex ratios and the effect of gender, neighborhood competition and habitat factors on the stem growth of dioecious Fraxinus mandshurica trees in a secondary conifer and broad-leaved mixed forest in the Changbai Mountains of northeastern China. The sex ratio in the 5.2-ha study area does not deviate significantly from the expected 1:1 ratio, except for trees in the large diameter classes. For dbh >40 cm, the sex ratio is male-biased. This result suggests that males have a faster rate of stem growth than females, which is usually explained by the higher cost of reproduction in the fruit-bearing females. An analysis of the dbh distributions of two successive measurements showed that the rate of stem growth of the (27) females drops off with increasing dbh and remains below that of the (35) males. A causal model was used to analyze factors affecting the rate of stem growth, showing that these rates are affected significantly and positively by soil moisture and tree size in both genders and that within-gender competition is mainly for nitrogen. Our study suggests that neighborhood competition does not affect stem growth significantly, which is a rather surprising result.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Allen GA, Antos JA (1993) Sex ratio variation in the dioecious shrub Oemleria cerasiformis. Am Nat 141:537–553 Álvarez-Cansino L, Zunzunegui M, Cruz Díaz Barradas M, Correia O, Paz Esquivias M (2013) Effects of temperature and rainfall variation on population structure and sexual dimorphism across the geographical range of a dioecious species. Soc Popul Ecol 55:135–146 Antos JA, Allen GA (1999) Patterns of reproductive effort in male and female shrubs of Oemleria cerasiformis: a 6-year study. Ecology 87:77–84 Armstrong JE, Irvine AK (1989) Flowering, sex ratios, pollen-ovule ratios, fruit set, and reproductive effort of a dioecious tress, Myristica insipida (Myristicaceae), in two different rain forest communities. Am J Bot 76:74–85 Bañuelos MJ, Obeso JR (2004) Resource allocation in the dioecious shrub Rhamnus alpinus: the hidden costs of reproduction. Evol Ecol Res 6:1–17 Barradas MCD, Correia O (1999) Sexual dimorphism, sex ratio and spatial distribution of male and female shrubs in the dioecious species Pistacia lentiscus L. Folia Geobotanica 34:163–174 Bierzychudek P, Eckhart V (1988) Spatial segregation of the sexes of dioecious plants. Am Nat 132:34–43 Collet C, Guehl JM, Frochot H, Ferhi A (1996) Effect of two forest grasses differing in their growth dynamics on the water relations and the growth of Quercus petraea seedlings. Can J Bot 74:1562–1571 Cornelissen T, Stiling P (2005) Sex-biased herbivory: a meta-analysis of the effects of gender on plant-herbivore interactions. Oikos 111:488–500 Correia O, Martins AC, Catarino EM (1992) Comparative phenology and seasonal foliar nitrogen variation in mediterranean species of Portugal. Ecologia Mediterranea 18:7–18 Dawson TE, Bliss LC (1989) Patterns of water use and the tissue water relations in the dioecious shrub, Salix arctica: the physiological basis for habitat partitioning between the sexes. Oecologia 79:332–343 Dawson TE, Ehleringer JR (1993) Gender specific physiology, carbon isotope discrimination and habitat distribution in box elder Acer negundo. Ecology 74(03):798–815 Freeman DC, Klikoff LG, Harper KT (1976) Differential resource utilization by the sexes of dioecious plants. Science 193:597–599 Garcia MB, Antor RJ (1995) Sex ratio and sexual dimorphism in the dioecious Borderea pyrenaica (Dioscoreaceae). Oecologia 101:59–67 He F, Duncan RP (2000) Density-dependent effects on tree survival in an old-growth Douglas fire forest. Ecology 88:676–688 Herrera CM (1988) Plant size, spacing patterns, and host plant selection in Osyris quadripartita, a hemiparasitic dioecious shrub. Ecology 76:995–1006 Lawton RO, Cothran P (2000) Factors influencing reproductive activity of Juniperus virginiana in the Tennessee Valley. J Torrey Bot Soc 127:271–279 Lee WK, Gadow KV (1997) Iterative Bestimmung der Konkurrenzbäume in Pinus densiflora Beständen. Allg Forst Jagdzg 168(3/4):41–44 Lee WK, Gadow KV, Chung DJ, Lee JL, Shin MY (2003) DBH growth model for Pinus densiflora and Quercus variabilis mixed forests in central Korea. Ecol Model 176:187–200 Lu Rukun (2000) Analysis method of soil agricultural chemistry. China Agricultural Science and Technology, Beijing, pp 157–217 Meagher TR, Antonovics J (1982) The population biology of Chamaelirium luteum, a dioecious member of the lily family: life history studies. Ecology 63:1690–1700 Morellato LPC (2004) Phenology, sex ratio, and spatial distribution among dioecious species of Triehilla (Meliaceae). Plant Biol 6:491–497 Nanami S, Kawaguchi H, Yamakura T (2005) Sex ratio and gender dependent neighboring effects in Podocarpus nagi, a dioecious tree. Plant Ecol 177:209–222 Nicotra AB (1999) Sexually dimorphic growth in the dioecious tropical shrub Siparuna grandiflora. Funct Ecol 13:322–331 Obeso JR (2002) The costs of reproduction in plants. New Phytol 155:321–348 Obeso JR, Alvarez-SantullanoM Retuerto R (1998) Sex ratios, size distributions, and sexual dimorphism in the dioecious tree Ilex aquifolium (Aquifoliaceae). Am J Bot 85:1602–1608 Oyama K, Dirzo R (1988) Biomass allocation in the dioecious tropical palm Chamaedora tepejilote and its life history consequences. Plant Species Biol 3:27–33 Petzold A, Pfeiffer T, Jansen F, Eusemann P, Schnittler M (2012) Sex ratios and clonal growth in dioecious Populus euphratica Oliv., Xinjiang Prov., Western China. Trees 27(3):729–744 Pickering CM, Hill W (2002) Reproductive ecology and the effect of altitude on sex ratios in the dioecious herb Aciphylla simplicifolia (Apiaeeae). Aust J Bot 50:l–12 Popp JW, Reinartz JA (1988) Sexual dimorphism in biomass allocation and clonal growth of Xanthoxylum americanum. Am J Bot 75:1732–1741 R Core Team (2012). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0. URL: http://www.R-project.org/ Ripley BD (1977) Modelling spatial pattern. J R Stat Soc Ser B 39:217–212 Rocheleau AF, Houle G (2001) Different cost of reproduction for the males and females of the rare dioecious shrub Corema conradii (Empetraceae). Am J Bot 88:659–666 Sakai AK (1990) Sex ratios of red maple (Acer rubrum) populations in Northern Lower Michigan. Ecology 71:571–580 Schmidt JP (2008) Sex ratio and spatial pattern of males and females in the dioecious sandhill shrub, Ceratiola ericoides (Empetraceae) Michx. Plant Ecol 196:281–288 Shea MM, Dixon EM, Sharitz RR (1993) Size differences, sex ratio, and spatial distribution of male and female water tupelo, Nyssa aquatica (Nyssaceae). Am J Bot 80:26–30 Stoyan D, Stoyan H (1994) Fractals, random shapes and point fields: methods of geometrical statistics. Wiley, Chichester Zhang C, Zhao X, Gao L, Gadow KV (2009) Gender, neighboring competition and habitat effects on the stem growth in dioecious Fraxinus mandshurica trees in a northern temperate forest. Ann For Sci 66:8–812 Zhang C, Zhao X, Gao L, Gadow KV (2010) Gender-related distributions of Fraxinus mandshurica in secondary and old-growth forests. Acta Oecol 36:55–62