Abstract :
Keywords Biomass; Clonal reproduction; Environmental gradient; Environmental change; Plant growth; Herbaceous marsh Highlights * Flooding depth and N supply interactively affected grow and reproduction. * N supply increased shoot height, leaf area and ramet number in control treatment. * N supply decreased leaf dry mass content and root length in flooding treatment. * Flooding depth and N supply both enhanced aboveground and belowground biomass. * Flooding depth and N supply both decreased the belowground-aboveground ratio. Abstract Functional trait values and trait responsiveness to different environmental regimes determine the growth and reproduction of wetland plants. Flooding depth and nitrogen (N) supply, which have strong effects on plant functional traits, are important factors affecting the growth of marsh plant species. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to examine the response of growth, clonal reproductive traits, biomass accumulation and allocation of Glyceria spiculosa to changes in flooding depth 0, +5 and +15 cm relative to the soil surface and N supply (0, 12, 20 and 28 mM N, added as urea [CH.sub.4N.sub.2O]). We found that flooding depth and N supply interactively affected grow, reproduction and biomass cumulation of G. spiculosa. N supply increased plant height (H), leaf area (LA) and above-ground biomass (AGB) and has no effect on leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and root length (RoL) in control treatment, and decreased LDMC and RoL and has no effect on H, LA and AGB in flooding treatment. N supply enhanced ramet number in control and shallow flooding treatment (+5 cm) and had no effect on that in deep flooding depth (+15 cm). Flooding depth has a positive and negative effect on belowground biomass (BGB) and the ratio of belowground to aboveground biomass (BAR), respectively. N supply has a positive effect on rhizome biomass and BGB and a negative effect on BAR. These findings contribute to our understanding of the roles of functional traits in response to habitat changes and of future distribution pattern for G. spiculosa. Author Affiliation: (a) Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment & Jilin Provincial Joint Key Laboratory of Changbai Mountain Wetland and Ecology, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China (b) University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China * Corresponding author. Article History: Received 16 January 2021; Revised 24 August 2021; Accepted 5 September 2021 (footnote)1 These two authors contribute equally to the article. Byline: Jiangshan Bai (a,b,1), Haoran Tang (a,b,1), Fangyuan Chen (a,b), Yanjing Lou [louyj@iga.ac.cn] (a,*)