Nurse shrubs can receive water stored in the parenchyma of their facilitated columnar cacti
In facilitative interactions, facilitated plants gain a benefit from growing associated to a nurse plant, without damaging the nurse. The persistence of these positive interactions or their shift to competition might depend on whether the nurse shrub also gains some benefit from the association. We hypothesized that nurse shrubs can receive water stored in the parenchyma of their facilitated Neobuxbaumia tetetzo once the cactus becomes an adult. We injected deuterium-enriched water into the water storage tissues of N. tetetzo adults, and sampled the xylem water of the nurse Mimosa luisana plant in the shared vegetation patch before and after the injection of the tracer. We also sampled spatial-control individuals of M luisana outside the vegetation patch. We found a significant enrichment in deuterium concentration in the xylem water of the associated M. luisana but not in individuals outside the patch. This suggests that in semiarid environments, nurse plants can benefit from growing associated to succulent columnar cacti by gaining water transferred from their storage tissues during dry periods, potentially enhancing persistence of facilitative interactions.
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | artículo biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2019-06
|
| Subjects: | Deuterium, Interplant water transfer, Neobuxbaumia tetetzo, Plant–plant interactions, Stable isotopes, Succulent plants, |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/183671 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000409 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003329 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|