Effects of moisture availability on clonal growth in bamboo Pleioblastus maculata.

The effects of moisture availability on clonal growth and biomass investment in the bamboo Pleioblastus maculata were investigated over a four-year period by transplanting Pleioblastus maculata clones into soils with different levels of moisture availability in the field. The results showed that: (1) The higher the moisture availability, the greater the total biomass of P. maculata clones. Although fewer culms are produced at the higher moisture levels, mean tiller biomass is greater. (2) Under different levels of moisture availability, obvious differences in the total rhizome length (p < 0.01), spacer length (p < 0.05) and the sizes of bamboo culms (height, p < 0.01; diameter, p < 0.01) were observed. Thus, the higher the moisture availability, the shorter the rhizomes and the larger ramets. (3) In microhabitats with low moisture availability, bamboo allocated more biomass to underground organs, which promotes elongation of rhizomes and increases root production, thereby helping to capture underground resources essential to growth. In microhabitats of high moisture availability, the biomass is primarily allocated to the aboveground growth of ramets. (4) We suggest that soil moisture availability effects the foraging strategies of bamboo, that bamboo plants growing with low moisture availability produce longer rhizomes (that is, more, although shorter, spacers) with more biomass allocation than plants in high moisture and have a better ability to forage to increase the probability of locating adequate moisture patches. Also, longer length distance between shoots (that is, longer spacers) in high soil moisture than in low is adapted to avoid intense competition from faster growing aboveground growth in high moisture patches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]