Trade-offs in growth and reproduction of rhizomatous clonal plant Phragmites communis in response to aeolian processes

Trade-offs in growth and reproduction are essential parts of the adaptive strategies of clonal plants. How rhizomatous psammophytes respond to aeolian processes (sand burial and wind erosion) by means of trade-offs is supposed to be especially important for their colonization on the active sand dune. Despite partial documentation of the responses of rhizomatous species to aeolian processes, how these clonal species respond to aeolian processes by means of potential trade-offs in growth and reproduction still remains unclear. In this study, we employed field investigation and biomass modeling to evaluate the trade-offs between vegetative and reproductive growth as well as between the number and size of ramets of Phragmites communis in response to sand burial and wind erosion. Sand burial enhanced the accumulation of seed biomass and reproductive effort. Wind erosion reduced reproductive effort but had no significant influence on seed biomass. Sand burial increased the biomass of ramets, while wind erosion increased ramet population density and accelerated ramet maturation. Our results demonstrate that rhizomatous psammophytes adjust their growth strategies in response to aeolian processes, i.e. reproductive growth and ramet size increase in response to sand burial, while vegetative growth and ramet numbers increase in response to wind erosion.