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He Q, Queenborough SA, Zhang Y, Wang W, Li B, Zhao K, Luo W, Tang H, Lin W, Chu C. Effects of tree sex, maturity, local abiotic, and biotic neighborhoods on the growth of a subtropical dioecious tree species Diospyros morrisiana. Am J Bot 2023; 110:e16124. [PMID: 36652334 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/17/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE Understanding the drivers of the growth in long-lived woody trees is the key to predicting their responses to and maintaining their populations under global change. However, the role of tree sex and differential investment to reproduction are often not considered in models of individual tree growth, despite many gymnosperm and angiosperm species having separate male and female sexes. Thus, better models of tree growth should include tree sex and life stage along with the abiotic and biotic neighborhoods. METHODS We used a sex-specific molecular marker to determine the sex of 2188 individual trees >1 cm DBH of the dioecious tree species Diospyros morrisiana in a 50-ha subtropical forest plot in China. We used long-term census data from about 300,000 trees, together with 625 soil samples and 2352 hemispherical photographs to characterize the spatially explicit biotic and abiotic neighborhoods. RESULTS We found a male-biased effective sex ratio and a female-biased overall population sex ratio of D. morrisiana. No sex spatial segregation was detected for the overall population, mature, or immature trees. Immature trees grew faster than mature trees and females grew slower than males. Further, conspecific neighbors significantly decreased tree growth, while the abiotic neighborhood showed no significant effect. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that variation in resource allocation patterns within and across individual trees of different sexes and life-history stages should be more widely accounted for in models of tree growth. In addition, our study highlights the importance of sex-specific molecular markers for studying populations of long-lived dioecious tree species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qing He
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
| | - Simon A Queenborough
- Yale School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511, USA
| | - Yonghua Zhang
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, 325000, China
| | - Weitao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
| | - Buhang Li
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
| | - Kangning Zhao
- School of Architecture, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, Hunan, China
| | - Wenqi Luo
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
| | - Hui Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
| | - Wei Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
| | - Chengjin Chu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences and School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
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Chen J, Dong T, Duan B, Korpelainen H, Niinemets Ü, Li C. Sexual competition and N supply interactively affect the dimorphism and competiveness of opposite sexes in Populus cathayana. Plant Cell Environ 2015; 38:1285-98. [PMID: 25366665 DOI: 10.1111/pce.12477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2014] [Revised: 10/17/2014] [Accepted: 10/21/2014] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Several important dioecious species show sexual spatial segregation (SSS) along environmental gradients that have significant ecological effect on terrestrial ecosystem. However, little attention has been paid to understanding of how males and females respond to environmental gradients and sexual competition. We compared eco-physiological parameters of males and females of Populus cathayana under different sexual competition patterns and nitrogen (N) supply levels. We found that males and females interacting with the same or opposite sex showed significant differences in biomass partition, photosynthetic capacity, carbon (C) and N metabolism, and leaf ultrastructure, and that the sexual differences to competition were importantly driven by N supply. The intersexual competition was enhanced under high N, while the intrasexual competition among females was amplified under low N. Under high N, the intersexual competition stimulated the growth of the females and negatively affected the males. In contrast, under low N, the males exposed to intrasexual competition had the highest tolerance, whereas females exposed to intrasexual competition showed the lowest adaptation among all competition patterns. Sexual competition patterns and N supply levels significantly affected the sexual dimorphism and competitiveness, which may play an important role in spatial segregation of P. cathayana populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan Chen
- Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China
- Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China
- Sichuan Province Key Laboratory of Ecological Security and Protection, Mianyang Normal University, Mianyang, 621000, China
| | - Tingfa Dong
- Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China
| | - Baoli Duan
- Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China
| | - Helena Korpelainen
- Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, FI-00014, Finland
| | - Ülo Niinemets
- Department of Plant Physiology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, 51014, Estonia
| | - Chunyang Li
- Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China
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