{"title":"Impacts of reduced water availability on vegetative and reproductive traits of a Solanum species","authors":"Diana Michael, Besufekad Wolde, Shivani Krishna","doi":"10.1111/1442-1984.12452","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"While drought is known to affect crop yields negatively, there is limited knowledge of the strategies used by animal‐pollinated plants to cope with such conditions. In this study, we simulated low and moderate drought conditions in a greenhouse experiment and examined the vegetative and reproductive traits of a buzz‐pollinated species (<jats:italic>Solanum lycopersicum</jats:italic>). Our findings indicate that individuals exposed to both drought conditions decreased in height and bore fewer leaves but increased in the ratio of root length to dry mass. The number of flowers produced per day and the overall flower production were higher in plants under control conditions. We found no differences in the onset of flowering between the treatments, but the plants exposed to low drought showed peak flowering earlier. Among the morphometric traits, flower height, floral diameter, petal length, and petal width were significantly lower in both drought conditions. Individuals in the moderate‐drought treatment displayed greater variation in reproductive traits than those in the low‐drought treatment. Overall, drought stress negatively impacted the aboveground vegetative growth and the reproductive efforts of plants.","PeriodicalId":54601,"journal":{"name":"Plant Species Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Plant Species Biology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1442-1984.12452","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
While drought is known to affect crop yields negatively, there is limited knowledge of the strategies used by animal‐pollinated plants to cope with such conditions. In this study, we simulated low and moderate drought conditions in a greenhouse experiment and examined the vegetative and reproductive traits of a buzz‐pollinated species (Solanum lycopersicum). Our findings indicate that individuals exposed to both drought conditions decreased in height and bore fewer leaves but increased in the ratio of root length to dry mass. The number of flowers produced per day and the overall flower production were higher in plants under control conditions. We found no differences in the onset of flowering between the treatments, but the plants exposed to low drought showed peak flowering earlier. Among the morphometric traits, flower height, floral diameter, petal length, and petal width were significantly lower in both drought conditions. Individuals in the moderate‐drought treatment displayed greater variation in reproductive traits than those in the low‐drought treatment. Overall, drought stress negatively impacted the aboveground vegetative growth and the reproductive efforts of plants.
期刊介绍:
Plant Species Biology is published four times a year by The Society for the Study of Species Biology. Plant Species Biology publishes research manuscripts in the fields of population biology, pollination biology, evolutionary ecology, biosystematics, co-evolution, and any other related fields in biology. In addition to full length papers, the journal also includes short research papers as notes and comments. Invited articles may be accepted or occasion at the request of the Editorial Board. Manuscripts should contain new results of empirical and/or theoretical investigations concerning facts, processes, mechanisms or concepts of evolutionary as well as biological phenomena. Papers that are purely descriptive are not suitable for this journal. Notes & comments of the following contents will not be accepted for publication: Development of DNA markers. The journal is introducing ''Life history monographs of Japanese plant species''. The journal is dedicated to minimizing the time between submission, review and publication and to providing a high quality forum for original research in Plant Species Biology.