Response of the common reed (Phragmites australis) to nutrient enrichment depends on the growth stage and degree of enrichment: A mesocosm experiment

Abstract

Human-induced nutrient enrichment is a major stressor in aquatic ecosystems that has resulted in the alteration of ecosystem structures and functions. However, to date, relatively few studies have explored the temporal dynamics of reed biomass and morphological and biochemical traits under different nutrient levels, as well as the phenological pattern. Based on a mesocosm experiment, we monitored the aboveground and underground biomass of reed at the different plant growth stages, along with plant height, ramet and leaf number, leaf length and width, and carbohydrate and nutrient contents in different organs. We found that the significantly different ratio of aboveground to underground biomass was only observed at the late flowering stage between the slight enrichment (S-E) and heavy enrichment (H-E) groups. The start of the fast-growth phase of the aboveground part and underground part was delayed in the higher nutrient enrichment groups. The length of the fast-growth phase of the aboveground part was the same in the medium enrichment (M-E) and H-E groups and longer than that in the S-E group. For the underground part, the longest fast-growth phase was found in the S-E group (105 days), followed by the H-E and M-E groups (46 and 41 days, respectively). As the nutrient level increased, both increased and decreased values were observed for the 29 monitored morphological and biochemical traits, and the magnitude changed with the different growth stages. Moreover, different degrees of nutrient enrichment could differentially enhance or weaken the relationships among the groups between total biomass and the integrated morphological trait, between structural carbohydrate (SC) and total nitrogen (TN) contents, between total organic carbon (TOC) and TN, between total phosphorus (TP) contents, between TOC and SC contents. Our findings highlight a crucial contribution of ambient nutrient supply to temporal variation in plant biomass and phenological, morphological and biochemical traits.

Keywords: Biochemical trait; Emergent macrophytes; Morphological traits; Nutrient level; Phenological traits.