PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY AND COMPETITIVE INTERACTIONS IN AQUATIC PLANT SPECIES UNDER CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
Abstract
The aim of this study was to explore the effects of phenotypic plasticity and competition between the floating aquatics Lemna minor and Spirodela polyrhiza in a controlled competitive setting. Two datasets were used: a competition dataset (535 observations) and a trait dataset (37 observations) that included species identity, treatment, numbers of conspecifics and heterospecifics, focal growth, specific leaf area (SLA), and root and shoot traits. Analysis of variance was used to determine phenotypic variation and multiple regression models and interaction models were used to determine the effects of species, treatment, and abundance of competitors on focal growth. SLA exhibited high species-specific plasticity and a high Species × Treatment interaction, as compared with the root–shoot responses. Focal growth was significantly reduced by both conspecific and heterospecific abundance, but in different proportions in each species. S. polyrhiza was more sensitive to intraspecific competition, while L. minor was more sensitive to the negative effect of heterospecific abundance. The integrated model of competition accounted for 40.2% of the variance in focal growth and demonstrated that there was a significant interspecific competition response within species. In conclusion, the data show that the combined effects of species identity, competitor density, and phenotypic plasticity all affect the performance of aquatic plants and help to drive coexistence between species under different biotic environments.
Downloads
References
2.Ali, A. A. (2025). Modeling competitive interactions between floating and submerged macrophytes in shallow lakes using field data. Theoretical Ecology, 18(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12080-025-00622-x
3.Austin, Å. N., Hansen, J. P., Donadi, S., Kautsky, L., & Eklöf, J. S. (2023). Stronger effect of individual species’ traits than shading on aquatic plant community productivity and interspecific competition. Aquatic Botany, 187, 103647.
4.Chou, Q., Zhang, W., Chen, J., Ren, W., Yuan, C., Wen, Z., Zhang, X., Cao, T., Ni, L., & Jeppesen, E. (2022). Phenotypic responses of a submerged macrophyte (Vallisneria natans) to low light combined with water depth. Aquatic Botany, 176, 103462.
5.Cornacchia, L., Van De Koppel, J., Van Der Wal, D., Wharton, G., Puijalon, S., & Bouma, T. J. (2018). Landscapes of facilitation: How self‐organized patchiness of aquatic macrophytes promotes diversity in streams. Ecology, 99(4), 832–847. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2177
6.Dalla Vecchia, A., Villa, P., & Bolpagni, R. (2020). Functional traits in macrophyte studies: Current trends and future research agenda. Aquatic Botany, 167, 103290.
7.Fontanari, J. F., Matos, M., & Santos, M. (2023). Local adaptation, phenotypic plasticity, and species coexistence. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 11, 1077374.
8.Govaert, L., Gilarranz, L. J., & Altermatt, F. (2021). Competition alters species’ plastic and genetic response to environmental change. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 23518.
9.Hart, S. (2021). Effects of phenotypic plasticity on species coexistence. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5726005
10.He, L.-X., Jin, Y., Zhang, X.-M., Luo, F.-L., Xue, W., Lei, J.-P., Liu, H., & Yu, F.-H. (2025). Clonal parental effects on competitive interactions between two duckweeds. Frontiers in Plant Science, 16, 1587907.
11.Hess, C., Levine, J. M., Turcotte, M. M., & Hart, S. P. (2022). Phenotypic plasticity promotes species coexistence. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6(9), 1256–1261.
12.Jewell, M. D., & Bell, G. (2023). Environmental and genetic variation in an asexual plant. Aquatic Botany, 188, 103675.
13.Kufel, L., Strzałek, M., & Przetakiewicz, A. (2018). Plant response to overcrowding–Lemna minor example. Acta Oecologica, 91, 73–80.
14.Muthukrishnan, R., Sullivan, L. L., Shaw, A. K., & Forester, J. D. (2020). Trait plasticity alters the range of possible coexistence conditions in a competition–colonisation trade‐off. Ecology Letters, 23(5), 791–799. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13477
15.Nunes, L. S. C., & Camargo, A. F. M. (2020). The interspecific competition of tropical estuarine macrophytes is not density-dependent. Aquatic Botany, 164, 103233.
16.Pan, Y., Yuan, D., Wu, Q., Jin, L., Xie, M., Gu, Y., & Duan, C. (2021). Effect of water exchange rate on interspecies competition between submerged macrophytes: Functional trait hierarchy drives competition. Plant and Soil, 466(1–2), 631–647. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-05081-x
17.Pérez-Ramos, I. M., Matías, L., Gómez-Aparicio, L., & Godoy, Ó. (2019). Functional traits and phenotypic plasticity modulate species coexistence across contrasting climatic conditions. Nature Communications, 10(1), 2555.
18.Roubeau Dumont, E., Larue, C., Pujol, B., Lamaze, T., & Elger, A. (2019). Environmental variations mediate duckweed (Lemna minor L.) sensitivity to copper exposure through phenotypic plasticity. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 26(14), 14106–14115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04630-3
19.Schmidt, K.-M., & Goldbach, H. E. (2022). Modelling of Lemna minor L. growth as influenced by nutrient supply, supplemental light, CO2 and harvest intervals for a continuous indoor cultivation. Heliyon, 8(12). https://www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(22)03482-X
20.Skovsholt, L. J., Matheson, F., Riis, T., & Hawes, I. (2024). Trait-specific groups of aquatic macrophytes respond differently to eutrophication of unshaded lowland streams. Science of the Total Environment, 954, 176724.
21.Strzałek, M., & Kufel, L. (2021). Light intensity drives different growth strategies in two duckweed species: Lemna minor L. and Spirodela polyrhiza (L.) Schleiden. PeerJ, 9, e12698.
22.Szabó, S., Koleszár, G., Zavanyi, G., Nagy, P. T., Braun, M., & Hilt, S. (2022). Disentangling the mechanisms sustaining a stable state of submerged macrophyte dominance against free-floating competitors. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13, 963579.
23.Ullah, H., Gul, B., Khan, H., Akhtar, N., Rehman, K. U., & Zeb, U. (2022). Effect of growth medium nitrogen and phosphorus on nutritional composition of Lemna minor (an alternative fish and poultry feed). BMC Plant Biology, 22(1), 214. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-022-03600-1
24.Van Dyck, I., Vanhoudt, N., i Batlle, J. V., Horemans, N., Nauts, R., Van Gompel, A., Claesen, J., & Vangronsveld, J. (2021). Effects of environmental parameters on Lemna minor growth: An integrated experimental and modelling approach. Journal of Environmental Management, 300, 113705.
25.Vejříková, I., Vejřík, L., Lepš, J., Kočvara, L., Sajdlová, Z., Čtvrtlíková, M., & Peterka, J. (2018). Impact of herbivory and competition on lake ecosystem structure: Underwater experimental manipulation. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 12130.
26.Xu, Y.-L., Tan, L. I., Guo, L., Yang, G.-L., Li, Q. I., Lai, F., He, K.-Z., Jin, Y., Du, A., & Fang, Y. (2019). Increasing starch productivity of Spirodela polyrhiza by precisely control the spectral composition and nutrients status. Industrial Crops and Products, 134, 284–291.
27.Yu, W., Dong, L., Li, Z., Huang, R., Chao, C., Xia, L., & Li, F. (2025). Nutrient and Light Interactions Shape Competitive Dynamics Between Two Co‐Occurring Submerged Macrophytes. Freshwater Biology, 70(12), e70147. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.70147
Copyright (c) 2026 IJRDO - JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
.png)
