Welcome to Chinese Journal of Ecology! Today is Share:

cje ›› 2011, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (02): 267-272.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Responses of growth and sexual reproduction of Phragmites australis and Spartina alterniflora to salinity stress.

XIAO Yan, TANG Jun-bing, AN Shu-qing**   

  1. Institute of Wetland Ecology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
  • Online:2011-02-08 Published:2011-02-08

Abstract: Two coastal plants, native Phragmites australis and exotic Spartina alterniflora, were grown in fresh water and the waters with salinity 15‰ and
30‰ to study their yearly dynamics of growth and sexual reproduction characteristics, aimed to explore the adaptation strategies of the two plants in response to increasing water salinity. Throughout the two-year experimental period, the aboveground biomass of S. alterniflora in all treatments was higher than that of P. australis. The aboveground biomass, shoot height, and ramet number of S. alterniflora and P. australis decreased with increasing water salinity. P. australis did not flower in the first year, but flowered in freshwater and medium salinity water in the second year. In the first year, the number of flowering ramets of S. alterniflora showed no difference among all treatments, but the inflorescence biomass decreased significantly in the water with high salinity. In the following year, the sexual reproduction of S. alterniflora was still inhibited by high salinity. The P. australis grown in fresh water and medium salinity water was taller than the S. alterniflora grown in the same waters in the second year, though the plant height of P. australis was shorter than that of S. alterniflora in the first year. Except P. australis in high salinity treatment, the aboveground biomass, shoot height, flowering ramet number, and inflorescence biomass of the two plants were higher in the second year than in the first year. Compared with P. australis, S. alterniflora had a relatively stronger growth ability and stronger tolerance to water salinity. The growth and sexual reproduction of the two plants increased with the time after establishment, but high salinity inhibited the increments for P. australis. In freshwater and medium salinity water, P. australis showed an advantage of shoot height in the second year.

Key words: Apis cerana cerana, Overwintering, Right age wintering bee, Cutting off offspring by imprisonment, Age structure