Ecophysiological traits of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous plants: are the costs and benefits the same?

0369568 - BÚ 2012 RIV DK eng J - Journal Article
Ellison, A. M. - Adamec, Lubomír
Ecophysiological traits of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous plants: are the costs and benefits the same?
Oikos. Roč. 120, č. 11 (2011), 1721-1731. ISSN 0030-1299. E-ISSN 1600-0706
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60050516
Keywords : terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous plants * photosynthesis * mineral nutrition
Subject RIV: EF - Botanics
Impact factor: 3.061, year: 2011

Central to the cost-benefit model for the evolution of botanical carnivory is the relationship between nutrients and photosynthesis: how efficiently carnivorous plants obtain scarce nutrients that are supplied primarily in form as prey, digest and mineralize them so that they can be readily used, and allocate them to immediate vs. future needs. Most carnivorous plants are terrestrial – they are rooted in sandy or peaty wetland soils – and most studies of cost-benefit trade-offs in carnivorous plants are based on terrestrial carnivorous plants. However about 10% of carnivorous plants are unrooted aquatic plants. We ask whether the cost-benefit model applies equally well to aquatic carnivorous plants and what general insights into trade-off models are gained by this comparison. Nutrient limitation is more pronounced in terrestrial carnivorous plants, which also have much lower growth rates and much higher ratio of dark respiration to photosynthetic rates than aquatic plants.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0203599