RUI: Testing Optimal Partitioning and Plant Strategy Theories: Do Conclusions Differ When Functional Adjustments are Explicitly Distinguished from Ontogenetic Drift?

RUI：测试最优分区和植物策略理论：当功能调整与个体发生漂移明确区分时，结论是否有所不同？

• 批准号: 9408120
• 负责人: Kelly McConnaughay
• 金额: $ 14.89万
• 依托单位: Bradley University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-06-15 至 1997-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9408120&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Testing; Optimal; Partitioning; Plant

9408120 McConnaughay In plant ecological research, differences among plants of different genetic identity (e.g., species) or among plants grown in different environments are usually assessed by comparing plants at a single, often arbitrary, point in time. This static view of plant responses does not recognize the dynamic and indeterminate nature of plant development. Most characteristics of plants change during growth and development; the ratio of root: shoot biomass, for example, is usually high in seedlings ald then declines as the plant grows in size. Furthermore, plants of different genetic identity or in different environments may differ in rates of growth and development. Thus differences observed at any one point in time may not represent an adapative response to a given environment, but rather may be due, at least in part to differences in the developmental stage or size of the plant. In the last several years, there has been a widespread recognition that a broad understanding of environmental and genetic differences among plants requires a dynamic characterization of plant growth and development. We must shift our focus from snapshots of plants at one point in development to the dynamics of development itself. Biomass allocation patterns (i.e., relative amounts of biomass put in to varying plant structures) have received considerable attention from plant ecologists and plant evolutionary biologists. For example, these traits have been used to describe functional adaptations to environmental constraints. Since allocation patterns may change during plant growth and development, different allocation patterns may result from flexibility in allocation per se (allocation plasticity) or in overall plant growth (plasticity in growth or developmental rates). In cases where allocational plasticity is strictly due to alterations in growth or developmental rates, much of our current theory concerning optimal growth patterns and functional adaptations of plants to variable environments may need to be revised. We propose to separate the effects of resource availability on plant growth rate and biomass partitioning. We will grow plants in environments with different levels of resource availability (CO2, light, nutrients and water) in order to determine if differences in biomass allocation result from differences in growth rates, partitioning, or both. These experiments will provide much needed information concerning plant functional adaptations to environments differing in resource availability. ***

在植物生态学研究中，具有不同遗传特性的植物（如物种）之间或生长在不同环境中的植物之间的差异通常是通过比较单个（通常是任意的）时间点的植物来评估的。这种对植物反应的静态观点没有认识到植物发育的动态性和不确定性。植物的大部分特征在生长发育过程中发生变化；例如，根：茎生物量的比例通常在幼苗中很高，然后随着植物的生长而下降。此外，不同遗传同一性或不同环境下的植物在生长发育速度上也可能存在差异。因此，在任何一个时间点观察到的差异可能并不代表对给定环境的适应性反应，而可能至少部分归因于植物发育阶段或大小的差异。在过去的几年里，人们已经普遍认识到，要广泛了解植物之间的环境和遗传差异，就需要对植物的生长和发育进行动态表征。我们必须把我们的重点从植物在某一发展阶段的快照转移到发展本身的动态。生物质分配模式（即投入不同植物结构的相对生物量）受到植物生态学家和植物进化生物学家的广泛关注。例如，这些特征被用来描述对环境约束的功能适应。由于分配模式在植物生长发育过程中可能发生变化，不同的分配模式可能是由于分配本身的灵活性（分配可塑性）或植物整体生长的灵活性（生长或发育速度的可塑性）造成的。在分配可塑性严格取决于生长或发育速率变化的情况下，我们目前关于植物对可变环境的最佳生长模式和功能适应的许多理论可能需要修订。我们建议将资源可利用性对植物生长速率和生物量分配的影响分离出来。我们将在不同资源可用性水平（二氧化碳、光、养分和水）的环境中种植植物，以确定生物量分配的差异是由生长速度、分配差异还是两者兼而有之造成的。这些实验将提供有关植物对不同资源可得性环境的功能适应方面急需的信息。＊＊＊