Genotypic differences in response to different patterns of clonal fragmentation in the aquatic macrophytePistia stratiotes

Aims Connected individuals (ramets) of clonal plants are frequently fragmented due to disturbance, and such clonal fragmentation may influence their growth. However, it is unclear whether different patterns of clonal fragmentation produce differential effects on plant growth and whether such differences vary with genotypes. Methods We collected one group of connected ramets of the stoloniferous floating invasive macrophyte Pistia stratiotes from each of six provinces (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces) of China, and assumed that these ramets belonged to different genotypes. After several generations of vegetative propagation to remove potential parental effects, new ramets (hereafter referred to as parent ramets) from each of these assumed genotypes were subjected to four patterns of clonal fragmentation, i.e., all offspring ramets produced during the experiment remained connected to their parent ramet (control), or the primary (1°), secondary (2°) or tertiary (3°) offspring ramets were disconnected from their parent ramet. Important findings We found significant growth differences among the assumed genotypes, confirming that the ramets sampled from these six provinces were from different genotypes. Compared with the control, disconnecting the 1°, 2° or 3° ramets did not significantly affect biomass of the whole clone (i.e., the parent ramet plus all offspring ramets) of P. stratiotes. Disconnecting the 1° ramets significantly increased biomass of the parental ramet of all six genotypes compared with the control. However, disconnecting the 2° or 3° ramets had little effect on biomass of the parent ramet for all genotypes except the Guangxi genotype, for which disconnecting the 2° ramets decreased biomass of the parent ramet. Disconnecting the 1°, 2° or 3° ramets had no impact on biomass or number of the 1° or the 3° ramets for any of the genotypes. However, disconnecting the 1° ramets decreased biomass of the 2° ramets for the Guangdong and Yunnan genotypes, but had no effect for the other four genotypes. We conclude that different patterns of clonal fragmentation can have different impacts on parent and offspring ramets of P. stratiotes and such an impact may vary with genotypes.