Plant resource-use strategies and phenotypic plasticity

Plant resource-use strategies and phenotypic plasticity

In subalpine grasslands, where a large diversity of habitats can occur over short distances, differing resource-use strategies will determine which species dominate individual sites. Grassein et al. examine the effect of a productivity gradient on two grasses, Dactylis glomerata and Festuca paniculata, which have exploitative and conservative resource-use strategies, respectively. They find that for both species most of the variability for functional traits is the result of phenotypic plasticity, and the amplitude and the pattern of plasticity both vary depending on the resource-use strategy of species